Philip Johnson quotes - page 2

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)
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
The best thing to do with water is to use a lot of it. View quote
Philip Johnson
You cannot not know history. View quote
Philip Johnson
The first complete sentence out of my mouth was probably that line about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
I'm a chameleon, so changeable. I see myself as a gadfly and a questioner. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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)
Glibness will get your anywhere. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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? View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
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. View quote
Philip Johnson
I guess I want to make money just like other people, perhaps more than most people. View quote
Philip Johnson
Architects are pretty much high-class whores. We can turn down projects the way they can turn down some clients, but we've both got to say yes to someone if we want to stay in business. (Philip Johnson)
Pick very few objects and place them exactly. View quote
Philip Johnson
Early unsuccessess shouldn't bother anybody because it happens to absolutely everybody. View quote
Philip Johnson
Naturalism and materialism mean essentially the same thing. View quote
Philip Johnson
American megalomania is largely responsible for the growth of the Skyscraper School. View quote
Philip Johnson