Quotes by Philip Johnson

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

“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.”

“All architects want to live beyond their deaths.”

“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.”

“Architecture is art, nothing else.”

“The future of architecture is culture.”

“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 r...”

“I wish someone would ask me to design a cathedral.”

“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...”

“Don't build a glass house if you're worried about saving money on heating.”

“At the basis of the Hiterlism mystique is the notion of race. ... If ... we overlook the terminology that Hitler inherits from Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain—and that has become so repugn...”

“Lack of leadership and direction in the state has let the one group get control who always gain power in a nation's time of weakness—the Jews.”

“[T]he German green uniforms made the place look gay and happy. There were not many Jews to be seen. We saw Warsaw burn and Modlin being bombed. It was a stirring spectacle.”

“The painters have every advantage over us today...Besides being able to tear up their failures—we never can seem to grow ivy fast enough—their materials cost them nothing. They have no committees o...”

“I like Houston. It's the last great 19th-century city. Houston has a spirit about it that is truly American, an optimism. People there aren't afraid to try something new.”

“[It] was the stupidest thing I ever did. I never forgave myself and I never can atone for it. There's nothing you can do.”

“[T]he anti-Semitism, I was in on, and that's the part I'm really ashamed of.”

“[He's] the greatest architect of the nineteenth century.”