Philip Johnson Quotes & Sayings

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

“Architecture is the art of how to waste space.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Architecture is art, nothing else.”

“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.”

“Doing a house is so much harder than doing a skyscraper.”