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" Glibness will get your anywhere. "
Philip Johnson
Get
Anywhere
Your
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" Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful. "
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" I wish someone would ask me to design a cathedral. "
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I Wish
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" 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. "
Philip Johnson
Thought
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Looking Back
" 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
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Nothing
" I guess I want to make money just like other people, perhaps more than most people. "
Philip Johnson
Money
Want
Like
" 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. "
Philip Johnson
Think
World
Change
" If architects weren't arrogant, they wouldn't be architects. I don't know a modest good architect. "
Philip Johnson
Arrogant
Architect
Modest
" I call myself a traditionalist, although I have fought against tradition all my life. "
Philip Johnson
Myself
Call
Tradition
" I guess I can't be a great architect. Great architects have a recognizable style. But if every building I did were the same, it would be pretty boring. "
Philip Johnson
Boring
Building
Great
" You cannot not know history. "
Philip Johnson
Know
History
You
" The future of architecture is culture. "
Philip Johnson
Culture
Architecture
Future
" 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
Like
Tradition
" 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
Me
Art
Why
" 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
Up
Go
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. "
Philip Johnson
Age
Old Age
Old
" 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. "
Philip Johnson
Yourself
You
Change
" I'm about four skyscrapers behind. "
Philip Johnson
Behind
Skyscrapers
About
" Architecture is art, nothing else. "
Philip Johnson
Else
Nothing
Art
" 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. "
Philip Johnson
Place
Myself
You
" 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. "
Philip Johnson
Talking
You
Feel
" 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. "
Philip Johnson
Think
Work
Purpose
" I always think of buildings in their settings, but so do other architects. "
Philip Johnson
Always
Buildings
Settings
" 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
" Faith? Haven't any. I'm not a nihilist or a relativist. I don't believe in anything but change. I'm a Heraclitean - you can't step in the same river twice. "
Philip Johnson
Step
River
Faith
" I haven't any wisdom - just a child like everybody else. I'm not as great as Frank Lloyd Wright. "
Philip Johnson
Wisdom
Child
Frank
" The first complete sentence out of my mouth was probably that line about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds. "
Philip Johnson
Line
Minds
Mouth
" Don't build a glass house if you're worried about saving money on heating. "
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Saving
House
You
" To me, the drive for monumentality is as inbred as the desire for food and sex, regardless of how we denigrate it. Monuments differ in different periods. Each age has its own. "
Philip Johnson
Sex
Drive
Desire
" Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston. "
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City
Showcase
Houston
" 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. "
Philip Johnson
Building
Care
Important