The Emblem Collection presents the multi-award winning architect Zaha Hadid, a fierce advocate for women in the creative fields and innovation in architecture. “As a woman in architecture, you’re always an outsider,” she told the Financial Times in 2015. “It’s okay, I like being on the edge.” Here are some more of our favorite quotes said by her:

“Women are always told, ‘You’re not going to make it, it’s too difficult, you can’t do that, don’t enter this competition, you’ll never win it,’ – they need confidence in themselves and people around them to help them to get on.”

“You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.”

“Architecture is particularly difficult for women; there’s no reason for it to be. I don’t want to blame men or society, but I think it was for a long time, the clients were men, the building industry is all male.”

“I used to not like being called a ‘woman architect.’ I’m an architect, not just a woman architect. The guys used to tap me on the head and say ‘you’re OK for a girl.’ But I see an incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it can be done, so I don’t mind anymore.”

“I don’t think that architecture is only about shelter, is only about a very simple enclosure. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.”

[Photograph by Philip Sinden for Harper’s Bazaar, December 2010]