Richard Rogers Quotations

The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.

Dyslexia, though, made me realise that people who say 'but you can't do that' aren't actually very important. I don't take 'no' too seriously.

Society has to get a grip and put a tax on carbon. Of course, there is much that flows from that, and it is a complex situation. The small details of something such as climate change are political and social, and they are a lot about fairness and how we rebalance towards a fairer society.

Everyone has the right to walk from one end of the city to the other in secure and beautiful spaces. Everybody has the right to go by public transport. Everybody has the right to an unhampered view down their street, not full of railings, signs and rubbish.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges facing our cities or to the housing crisis, but the two issues need to be considered together. From an urban design and planning point of view, the well-connected open city is a powerful paradigm and an engine for integration and inclusivity.

The Athenians had an oath for someone who was about to become a citizen. They had to swear that 'I shall leave the city not less but more beautiful than I found it.'

Form follows profit is the aesthetic principle of our times.

My passion and great enjoyment for architecture, and the reason the older I get the more I enjoy it, is because I believe we - architects - can effect the quality of life of the people.

Of course I know very little about architecture, and the older I get the less I know.

I have a very big family, and that is my number one thing, and we go away for a month to see my cousins in Italy every year, but I need to work.

Most buildings, whether they're Gothic cathedrals or Romanesque ones, were high tech for their time.

The gap between the rich and poor is widening fast.

Architecture is a living thing. If I want to leave something to the future, it has to be able to change - but retain something of the ethos that we built up over 50 years.

Architects are not clients. We can't build without something to built.

My mother was very family-oriented. And I do love being with my children.

Architecture is about public space held by buildings.

'Be passionate about your work and your life' was instilled in me by my mother Dada, who was a potter. She also introduced me to the arts and encouraged me to embrace the new.

The one advantage of being dyslexic is that you are never tempted to look back and idealise your childhood.

I think greed is a critical problem - the gap between the poor and the rich. The gap between the top 10 percent and the bottom 10 percent.

I don't understand why everyone has to wear black, grey and white.

The Ranelagh Gardens in Chelsea provide plenty of opportunities to walk, think and relax.

Watching TV on your own is not very inspiring. But meeting people is where you get new ideas and get things done.

Cities are about juxtaposition. In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like. In Bordeaux, we built law courts right next door to what is effectively a listed historic building, and that makes it exciting.

I remember my mother taking me to see the Picasso show in the 1940s, and I was impressed by the life and vibrancy of it all. It was a bit too avant-garde for most Londoners at the time, but since then, the city has become a centre for modern culture.

It is quite interesting that whilst there are tremendous theories, in the 1960s when IT was born, everybody was supposedly going to their cottage in the countryside to work in a virtual way.

Cities depend on a healthy mix of uses and people for their vitality. As a pre-eminent world city, London is a magnet to people from across the globe.

I believe very strongly, and have fought since many years ago - at least over 30 years ago - to get architecture not just within schools, but architecture talked about under history, geography, science, technology, art.

My architecture tends to be legible, light and flexible. You can read it. You look at a building, and you can see how it is constructed. I put the structure outside.

Architecture is measured against the past; you build in the future, and you try to imagine the future.

If you had a carbon tax, you'd have less cars and more bicycles, more people getting around on foot and by public transport.

Architecture is a slow business, and city planning even slower.

I don't believe in the ownership of work.

I love my job. What would I retire to?

In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like.

My parents always told me that nothing was impossible.

There is a Jewish tradition of family, too, but then not all Italian or Jewish families are close.

You have to modernise; you have to change - you can't just be traditional for the fun of being traditional.

A greater focus on design in all new homes would make the best use of land, create homes and public spaces, and reinforce the structures of urban life.

I think we did a pretty good role, linking, being a sounding board really and a driving force, especially from the bottom up. I think that part of this is bottom up as well as top down.

Architects design buildings; that's what we do, so we have to go with the flow; and, even though I'm still an old Leftie, global capitalism does have its good side. It's broken down barriers - the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union - it's raised a lot of people up economically, and for architects, it has meant that we can work around the world.

Education in British schools isn't good enough. It's not remotely imaginative enough. It lets down too many children, excluding them from society, and, as I've often said, people who are excluded from society tend to express themselves in ways not acceptable to society.

I believe very much in a dialogue between buildings - I believe it's always been there. I think buildings have different identities and live very well next to each other. We always have the shock of the new, and that's fine. The renaissance style is totally different from the medieval, and they have a dialogue across time.

I cycle, which is a healthy thing for an 80-year-old to do. I rarely go further than five miles, but in those five miles I can get to 80 percent of the places I want to go.

I had lots of trouble in school as a child, and I lost confidence. Teachers thought I was stupid. I learned to read very late, when I was 11. Dyslexia wasn't recognized then, and the assumption was you were incapable of thinking.

I like the idea of trying to influence society by taking a brief, then maybe subtly changing it or looking at it in a new way to see what interesting things can emerge.

I love cities, I spend most of my life talking about cities. And the design of cities does have an effect on your life. You're lucky if you can see trees out of your window and you have a square nearby, or a bar, a cornershop, a surgery. Then you're living well.

I'm just saying that there are high quality materials, and when we change them then there should be a way of changing them so that you can celebrate that change - rather than just 'mix it up'.

If I remember rightly Holland for instance has something like 45, and it's a much smaller country. In comparison we have very few and they are very badly financed.

If you live in a squalid environment, then of course you are going to want to get out of it, you are probably going to want to get into the country, because that's what it does.

One of the things you see in New York is that offices keep their lights on at night. They're proud of their building. Great. But they must find another way to be proud without draining energy.

I am much more passionate about cities than I am about nations. The competition between cities is more civilised than between nations. There is an understanding there.

When I started out, nearly every architect I knew was working in public practice; that's where the radical thinking was done. But, there's always a danger of looking back as our fathers did and saying, 'Things were better then.'

You know, the environment is fragmenting, and the environment is, in many places, absolutely hideous!

Suburban sprawl leads to social atomisation and fragmentation and is environmentally disastrous, as carbon-intensive car journeys displace local shops and replace public transport.

So I think that, yes, anything that makes it more palatable and easier to understand, such as a Virtual Centre, has to be seen as a primary activity within the educational and information global state.

Clearly, private developers can have different aims, and architects can only play a certain role. You can have some pretty big battles on public commissions, too. The key is to have a good client.

Family is everything, although I've been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the most amazing minds over the years, including Renzo Piano, John Young, Graham Stirk and Ivan Harbour.

I think you could make a completely Virtual Centre, though I have a general feeling, and maybe because I am getting very old, that you still need face to face.

Until now, we've been a group of buildings surrounded by parking lots, ... Now the garden brings all the buildings together and gives us a real presence and identity.

I'd be very happy for an Architectural Centre put together on Virtual Lines. In terms of a Virtual Centre - I think that's part of it.

If we are going to get the public and the specialists and politicians to come together, then the creation of Architectural Centres is vital.

Her gift is one the whole city can enjoy, ... The garden is a thrill for me. I even saw some joggers enjoying the paths.

Her generous gift and enduring spirit allows us to further our commitment to our students, faculty and community.

We don't see the need to sell it in the first place.

We just didn't have any intensity starting out. We made some adjustments at halftime and spent the second half trying to come back. Our guys didn't give up.

We'd appreciate everybody coming out and supporting us. Both of our teams need to win one of the next three conference games to go to state. But our goal is to win them all.

Barcelona has the best urban regeneration in Europe. They've changed 3.75 miles of rusting port and foul sand into the most beautiful beach where you can practically dive in from your hotel bedroom.

There will be opportunities again, but not a bargain like we got today.

There is no way I am going back there. I was looking for an excuse to get out and that was it.

I particularly love Legorreta's use of vivid pink, set off by sun and the tough, tropical nature of Mexico.

If you had to choose a nation that is moving fastest in cultural terms it has to be Spain. After 40 years of the limitations of a fascist government, you suddenly see a tremendous vitality. You feel it in the street.

You could hear the goal when it hit.

All I know was that he was in between the ball and me.

The girls are playing to better their seed. If the guys beat Lakeside they could get into state.

This is a pivotal time for urban regeneration. We must take a long term view.

There are times I almost think I am not sure of what I absolutely know. Very often find confusion in conclusion I concluded long ago. In my head are many facts that, as a student, I have studied to procure. In my head are many facts of which I wish I was more certain I was sure.

Today is much more an age of greed

Cities are about juxtaposition.

As an artist, what do you think the biggest mistake you can make is? My vote for the biggest mistake is being afraid of making mistakes.

Technology cannot be an end in itself but must aim at solving long term social and ecological problems.

It is my belief that exciting things happen when a variety of overlapping activities designed for all people-the old and the young, the blue and white collar, the local inhabitant and the visitor, different activities for different occasions-meet in a flexible environment, opening up the possibility of interaction outside the confines of institutional limits. When this takes place, deprived areas welcome dynamic places for those who live, work and visit; places where all can participate, rather than less or more beautiful ghettos.

There has to be policies about that, about what materials we use and so on.

Sustainable development: Meeting present needs without compromising the stock of natural resources remaining for future generations. In terms of buildings, it implies resource efficiency, minimum energy use, flexibility and long life

As architects we have a responsibility to society

Architecture is measured against the past, you build in the present, and try to imagine the future.