The most essential prerequisite to understanding is to be able to admit when you don't understand something

The age of recalcitrance is over. The best solution is no longer just to regurgitate a 19th-century design.

Half of architecture students are women, and you see respected, established female architects all the time.

Originality implies a return to the origins, original is returning to the simplicity of the first solutions.

Compared to industry in Europe or Japan, where industry was based on a craft tradition, we are sadly behind.

If the architecture is any good, a person who looks and listens will feel its good effects without noticing.

The Capitol is the best work I have ever done, or shall ever do, and I am glad to have Given it to St. Paul.

And any stone being mentally handled must become endowed with such poetry and artistry as God has given you.

One cannot create happiness with beautiful objects, but one can spoil quite a lot of happiness with bad ones

Computers allow architects to remain parental instead of being marginalized by the contractors and managers.

Respect the masterpiece. It is true reverence to man. There is no quality so great, none so much needed now.

I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity.

Architecture is about the understanding of the world and turning it into a more meaningful and humane place.

It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution.

The orbit of human vision has widened and art has annexed fresh territories that were formerly denied to it.

I wouldn't have been a health care nut if it hadn't been for my paralysis, so something good came from this.

We build buildings which are terribly restless. And buildings don't go anywhere. They shouldn't be restless.

In other words, each piece of the building must look as though it was designed for that particular building.

To be truly free, it takes more determination, courage, introspection, and restraint than to be in shackles.

You can't better the world by simply talking to it. Philosophy to be effective must be mechanically applied.

You have to accept as an architect to be exposed to criticism. Architecture should not rely on full harmony.

The responsibility of an architect is to create a sense of order, a sense of place, a sense of relationship.

I think white is the most wonderful color of all, because within it one can find every color of the rainbow.

The most touching thing that anyone can say to me is that I have done something beautiful for the community.

Many of the architects I admire have given the best of themselves as they mature. I'm hoping to do the same.

I have always tried to create bridges that are more than a connecting structure - places in their own right.

One of the things I think about as I've evolved as an architect is, 'Where do the poetic impulses come from?'

Color in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic.

It is only the young and callow and ignorant that admire rashness. Think before you speak. Know your subject.

If you think you're meeting your destiny on the other side of a door you may not be interested in its design.

Ninety percent of the buildings we live in and around aren't architecture. No, that's not right - 98 percent.

Childhood play is nothing more than an expression of our individuality and preparation for human interaction.

Bureaucrats: they are dead at 30 and buried at 60. They are like custard pies; you can't nail them to a wall.

Courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.

I generally hate the luxury modern apartment with too many things out of sight and so clean you cannot touch.

Technological considerations are of great importance to architecture and cities in the informational society.

You can't have the finest buildings if they're not in focus. They become like nice cars parked on the street.

It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the individuality of the building.

I collect art like other people eat pizza. I can't get enough of it. I need a constant source of inspiration.

Nature is all that we think we know plus all that we don't know whether or not we know that we don't know it.

The work in S, M, L, XL was almost suicidal. It required so much effort that our office almost went bankrupt.

My inspiration came from the land, ... and, of course, from Paul Klee . . . and the poetics of his paintings.

The difference between a builder and an architect is that an architect also cares about desire, about dreams.

I feel the romance should never go out of any marriage. Even after one has had kids etc. Love never ends, na?

You always want to try to make something new, and, of course, America is the world leader in economics today.

My buildings are not particularly expensive. It is not a tin shed. If you want a tinny car, you pay for that.

Only when inspired to go beyond consciousness by some extraordinary insight does beauty manifest unexpectedly.

I'm a very good listener, and I'm not interested in having fights simply for a question of protocol or vanity.

You have to be optimistic. I still have doubts and conflicts, but the bottom line is, I believe in the future.

I hate the word starchitect. Stuff like that comes from mean-spirited, untalented journalists. It's demeaning.

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