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" Anybody can build a building, putting some doors into it, but how many times have you been in a building that moves you to tears the way Beethoven's 'Eighth' does? "

Philip Johnson

You

Way

Building

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" I call myself a traditionalist, although I have fought against tradition all my life. "

" The people with money to build today are corporations - they are our popes and Medicis. The sense of pride is why they build. "

" I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty, so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs - at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral. "

" Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful. "

" I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach? "

" How does an artist know when the line that he just painted is good or not good? That's the catch. De Kooning was the greatest of my contemporaries in art, and he knew when he'd done a good line. When he didn't, he threw it away. I wish I'd thrown away some of mine. "

" 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. "

" There's only one reason for my whole life, and that's art. Nothing else counts; nothing else gives me pleasure; nothing else gives me satisfaction. "

Philip Johnson

Art

Nothing

" 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. "

" Architecture is art, nothing else. "

" I get between nine and ten hours of sleep. Go to bed at 8:30 and get up at 6:00 or 6:30 if I oversleep. "

Philip Johnson

Get

" There's no such thing as old age. I'm no different now than I was 50 years ago. I'm just having more fun. "

" Dullness is the enemy. "

Philip Johnson

Dullness

Enemy

" Don't build a glass house if you're worried about saving money on heating. "

" There's no worse feeling than seeing my buildings and realizing the mistakes. "

" I'm about four skyscrapers behind. "

" If architects weren't arrogant, they wouldn't be architects. I don't know a modest good architect. "

" I wouldn't build a building if it wasn't of interest to me as a potential work of art. Why should I? "

Philip Johnson

Art

Why

" I guess I want to make money just like other people, perhaps more than most people. "

Philip Johnson

Money

Want

" 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. "

" You cannot not know history. "

" Architecture is the art of how to waste space. "

" 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. "

" I'm a chameleon, so changeable. I see myself as a gadfly and a questioner. "

" Processionalism is primary - how you get from one place to another, the relationships and effects of spaces as you move about in them. That's worked out awfully well in the State Theater. I'm a 'straight-in' man myself; I'm too nervous, I like to know where I am. I also like to know where I'm going. "

" All architects want to live beyond their deaths. "

" I like to be buttoned onto tradition. The thing is to improve it, twist it and mold it; to make something new of it; not to deny it. The riches of history can be plucked at any point. "

Philip Johnson

Improve

Tradition

" Glibness will get your anywhere. "

" The future of architecture is culture. "

" All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space. "