Philip Johnson Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I guess I can't be a great architect. Great architects have a recognizable style. But if every building I did were the same, it would be pretty boring.”

“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.”

“Dullness is the enemy.”

“Glibness will get your anywhere.”

“I wouldn't build a building if it wasn't of interest to me as a potential work of art. Why should I?”

“Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful.”