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" You cannot not know history. "
Philip Johnson
Know
History
You
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" 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
" Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston. "
Philip Johnson
City
Showcase
Houston
" I call myself a traditionalist, although I have fought against tradition all my life. "
Philip Johnson
Myself
Call
Tradition
" Dullness is the enemy. "
Philip Johnson
Dullness
Enemy
" All architects want to live beyond their deaths. "
Philip Johnson
Death
Beyond
Architects
" I guess I want to make money just like other people, perhaps more than most people. "
Philip Johnson
Money
Want
Like
" The future of architecture is culture. "
Philip Johnson
Culture
Architecture
Future
" 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. "
Philip Johnson
House
Country
Know
" I'm a chameleon, so changeable. I see myself as a gadfly and a questioner. "
Philip Johnson
Chameleon
I See
Myself
" Architecture is the art of how to waste space. "
Philip Johnson
How
Architecture
Art
" 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
" Architecture is art, nothing else. "
Philip Johnson
Else
Nothing
Art
" 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
" 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
" If architects weren't arrogant, they wouldn't be architects. I don't know a modest good architect. "
Philip Johnson
Arrogant
Architect
Modest
" I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original. "
Philip Johnson
Nobody
Everything
Someone
" Doing a house is so much harder than doing a skyscraper. "
Philip Johnson
Than
Doing
House
" All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space. "
Philip Johnson
Great
Architecture
Design
" I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach? "
Philip Johnson
Why
You
Beach
" Architecture is basically the design of interiors, the art of organizing interior space. "
Philip Johnson
Space
Architecture
Design
" 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
" Don't build a glass house if you're worried about saving money on heating. "
Philip Johnson
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
" 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
" Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful. "
Philip Johnson
Purpose
Beautiful
Building
" 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
" 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
" 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
" The people with money to build today are corporations - they are our popes and Medicis. The sense of pride is why they build. "
Philip Johnson
Pride
Why
Build
" 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