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" I probably have fundamentally antisocial tendencies. I never took one extracurricular activity. I just failed utterly at that level. Part of me still rebels against that. "

Maya Lin

Against

Level

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" It terrified me to have an idea that was solely mine to be no longer a part of my mind, but totally public. "

" When I was very little, we would get letters from China, in Chinese, and they' be censored. We were a very insular little family. "

" I didn't have anyone to play with so I made up my own world. "

" For the most part things never get built the way they were drawn. "

" I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It's what you learn, what you think. That's all that counts. "

" A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time. I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as a journey in time. "

" Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field. "

" Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture. "

Maya Lin

Architecture

Art

" I left science, then I went into art, but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them. "

" It's funny, as you live through something you're not aware of it. "

" It was a requirement by the veterans to list the 57,000 names. We're reaching a time that we'll acknowledge the individual in a war on a national level. "

" You have to have conviction and completely question everything and anything you do. No matter how much you study, no matter how much you know, the side of your brain that has the smarts won't necessarily help you in making art. "

" Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist. "

" If we can't face death, we'll never overcome it. You have to look it straight in the eye. Then you can turn around and walk back out into the light. "

" Some artists want to confront. Some want to invoke thought. They're all necessary and they're all valid. "

" To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom. "

Maya Lin

American Dream

Freedom

" I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher, she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up. "

" To fly we have to have resistance. "

Maya Lin

Fly

Resistance

" It's only in hindsight that you realize what indeed your childhood was really like. "

" You couldn't put me in a social group setting. I'm probably a terrible anarchist deep down. "

Maya Lin

You

Deep

" You should be having more fun in high school, exploring things because you want to explore them and learning because you love learning-not worrying about competition. "

" Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have. "

Maya Lin

Thought

Warmth

" My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar. "

" My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions. "

Maya Lin

Authority

College

" I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was. "

" The role of art in society differs for every artist. "

" We were unusually brought up; there was no gender differentiation. I was never thought of as any less than my brother. "

Maya Lin

Any

Never

" The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn't about money. It was about teaching, or learning. "

" Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn't occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice. "

" Nothing is ever guaranteed, and all that came before doesn't predicate what you might do next. "