“In graduate school, I decide to write my doctoral thesis on how Italia...” — Jhumpa Lahiri Quote

In graduate school, I decide to write my doctoral thesis on how Italian architecture influenced English playwrights of the seventeenth century. I wonder why certain playwrights decided to set their tragedies, written in English, in Italian palaces.

I feel that Italy's a country that's constantly looking out and constantly following what's happening in other cultural centers. What is being written in America, what is being published in England, what is being published in France. It's a culture that's always wanting to absorb and inform itself of other works, other writers, etc., etc.

There's more than enough in the world I am currently writing about to last for several lifetimes of writing.

Oddly, I feel more protected when I write in Italian, even though I'm also more exposed.

I don't believe in morality in architecture.

Rationalism is the enemy of art, though necessary as a basis for architecture.

By 1970, the first stirrings of the revolt against Modernist orthodoxy in architecture had been felt, although it would be several years more until Postmodernism was widely accepted and made classical motifs permissible in high-style building design for the first time in decades.

The more centralized the power, the less compromises need to be made in architecture.

India and Egypt have been strongly influencing each other's culture, arts and architecture since ancient times.