I once almost got to interview the architect Arata Isozaki, but it was canceled due to his ill health at the time. No doubt a consideration in the cancelation was the fact that interviews with him can go to extreme lengths, as Isozaki has much to tell, having collaborated with almost every big name in postwar Japan — and not just architects, but also artists, musicians and other creative types.

He has also recently been in the news due to the continuing controversy over Zaha Hadid's much-maligned design for the 2020 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, which — in an open letter to the Japan Sports Council — Isozaki hilariously described as a "dull, slow form, like a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away."

With all his various interests and opinions, Isozaki sees himself not just as an architect, but as a cross-disciplinary artist, a so-called Renaissance Man.