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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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" 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

Beauty

Looking Back

" Dullness is the enemy. "

Philip Johnson

Dullness

Enemy

" The first complete sentence out of my mouth was probably that line about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds. "

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

" I wish someone would ask me to design a cathedral. "

Philip Johnson

I Wish

Someone

" I always think of buildings in their settings, but so do other architects. "

" 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. "

" Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston. "

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

Philip Johnson

Money

Want

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

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

" Architecture is basically the design of interiors, the art of organizing interior space. "

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

" 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

" Glibness will get your anywhere. "

" The future of architecture is culture. "

" All architects want to live beyond their deaths. "

" 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? "

" I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original. "

" 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. "

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

" You cannot not know history. "

" 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. "

" Doing a house is so much harder than doing a skyscraper. "

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

" 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. "