"The automobile is the greatest catastrophe in the entire history of City architecture."
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Quote collection
Philip Johnson quotes (page 2 of 4)
61 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"We all see the world differently. And thank God for that. Otherwise, what a boring world this would be."
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"Scientific naturalism is a story that reduces reality to physical particles and impersonal laws, [and] portrays life as a meaningless competition among organisms that exist only to survive and reproduce."
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"There's no worse feeling than seeing my buildings and realizing the mistakes."
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"I used to think that each phase of life was the end. But now that my view on life is more or less fixed, I believe that change is a great thing. In fact, it's the only real absolute in the world."
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"The people with money to build today are corporations - they are our popes and Medicis. The sense of pride is why they build."
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"You're going to change the world? Well, go ahead and try. You'll give it up at a certain point and change yourself instead."
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"I'm a chameleon, so changeable. I see myself as a gadfly and a questioner."
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"When a building is as good as that one, f#*@ the art."
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"Concrete you can mold, you can press it into - after all, you haven't any straight lines in your body. Why should we have straight lines in our architecture? You'd be surprised when you go into a room that has no straight line - how marvelous it is that you can feel the walls talking back to you, as it were."
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"I think the collectors have made an enormous contribution, not only to the market but to painters themselves... These people that buy, that set standards, make everyone else itch to emulate."
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"Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston."
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"To sum up the state of architecture in America: ninety percent of the buildings we live in and around aren't architecture. No, that's not right - 98 percent."
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"Glibness will get your anywhere."
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"All architects want to live beyond their deaths."
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"Maybe, just maybe, we shall at last come to care for the most important, most challenging, surely the most satisfying of all architectural creations: building cities for people to live in."
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"Architecture is basically the design of interiors, the art of organizing interior space."
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"I haven't any wisdom - just a child like everybody else. I'm not as great as Frank Lloyd Wright."
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"In my own work, I'd say I'm a classicist, but I look everywhere for my solutions. I don't study the toilet-living habits of my clients, although that's a popular approach. First, I think of every building in history that has been similar in purpose. Then I think of the functional program - that's a major part of the study."
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"I guess I want to make money just like other people, perhaps more than most people."
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