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" 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

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

" It is wonderful to be in the country in a glass house, because no matter what happens out there, you're nice and safe, you know, cuddled in your little bed, and there it is, raging storms, snowing - wonderful. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I haven't any wisdom - just a child like everybody else. I'm not as great as Frank Lloyd Wright. "

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

" 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

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

Philip Johnson

I Wish

Someone

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

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

" 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. "

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

Philip Johnson

Money

Want

" You cannot not know history. "

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

" The future of architecture is culture. "

" 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

" 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

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

" 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

" 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. "

" Dullness is the enemy. "

Philip Johnson

Dullness

Enemy

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

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

" I'm about four skyscrapers behind. "

" Glibness will get your anywhere. "

" Architecture is art, nothing else. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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