American Architect Quotations

Of all the Jedis I saw in the film, Yoda's the only one I like.

I believe Business Objects is on the cusp of becoming a multi-billion-dollar sales company. There is tremendous growth potential for business intelligence.

And you finally get to a consensus, where you get a sense of what really ought to be done, and then they give it to me and then I draw it. I mean draw it in the sense, the philosophical sense.

The whole purpose of those attacks was to drive those contractors out. Lots of them had to leave. They were terrified.

France needs to find something that makes it stand out. It's not enough for it to do almost as well as its neighbors.

And I think one of the tasks that I always feel is how to get that vision out of them. Not exactly what they want, but what they want to accomplish for themselves or their community or their family.

Because over and over again, the times that I've done really good things is because I've had a wonderful client of some kind, and a lot of it depended on me to induce them to be creative.

But I absolutely believe that architecture is a social activity that has to do with some sort of communication or places of interaction, and that to change the environment is to change behaviour.

Then I sit down, work at it, because now I have a convincing feeling about what that place wants to be, you see? And it's not just me. Me and my talent comes in taking that consensus and then making something wonderful out of it - a work of art.

Because one of the benefits of getting older, I guess-there are very few benefits, really - most of them are a pain in the butt. People depend on me more; they believe in me more, they think I'm good.

One is, that they will feel about you that you're going to make something wonderful for them. And they help you by expressing themselves. Not telling you how to do it, but encouraging you and accepting your vision and working with you on that kind of a level.

Because the quality of living with nature and allowing it to manifest itself is different than the quality of living in a city, especially a dense city.

One of the things I thought a lot about was how can we get the views, for instance, the main plaza, you look up to Telegraph Hill from there and therefore it would be a disaster to close that view off.

It was really written as most, I think, books are by writers - for themselves. There was something that just had to be written, in a way that it had to be written. If you know what I mean.

I suppose and I hope that the young guys who are out there losing their lives at least feel the same way I did. I shouldn't think about this very much because I'm almost weeping when I think about it.

The view outside was much more important than the exhibits.

Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized.

So I test all the buildings that I do by asking myself whether this building was possible, could have been built 50 years ago or a hundred years ago.

Simplicity and repose are qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.

I don't care what people call me,labels have the negative value of making smaller boundaries for people.

Buildings should serve people, not the other way around.

I have a requirement for myself in making designations of elements. I need to have full language and I do not want the language to be only space.

I see architecture not as Gropius did, as a moral venture, as truth, but as invention, in the same way that poetry or music or painting is invention.

We must learn to understand humanity better so that we can create an environment that is more beneficial to people, more rewarding, more pleasant to experience.

Well, now that he's finished one building, he'll Le Corbusier go write four books about it.

But often it's doubtful whether the logic of the work itself and the words used to describe it really have anything to do with each other.

A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.

Adequate information about the existing environment and about the types of place that it is desirable to make cannot be kept inside one brain.

Architects in the past have tended to concentrate their attention on the building as a static object. I believe dynamics are more important: the dynamics of people, their interaction with spaces and environmental condition.

Although the private cannot be substantiated by common logic, you have to find a workable logic in which to argue on behalf of the work.

It is through accomplishment that man makes his contribution and contribution is life's greatest reward.

The interesting thing about Oberlin College as it differs from other more urban schools or universities is that it is a walking campus.

Inspired by the project's unique blending of commercial and cultural interests, the goal was to create an iconic, yet pragmatic design.

But I don't see why we have to take a central hall, for instance, and use in it a sculpture or painting. I think it detracts, somehow.

However, India is a democracy and they deeply believe in democracy and we feel that it would not be good to overwhelm them with propaganda.