Quotes by Maya Lin

About Maya Lin:

Maya Ying Lin is an American designer and artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She first came to fame at the age of 21 as the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I didn't have anyone to play with so I made up my own world.

Maya Lin

My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions.

Maya Lin

For the most part things never get built the way they were drawn.

Maya Lin

Some artists want to confront. Some want to invoke thought. They're all necessary and they're all valid.

Maya Lin

Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.

Maya Lin

It terrified me to have an idea that was solely mine to be no longer a part of my mind, but totally public.

Maya Lin

Our parents decided not to teach us Chinese. It was an era when they felt we would be better off if we didn't have that complication.

Maya Lin

You have to let the viewers come away with their own conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it.

Maya Lin

Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field.

Maya Lin

Nothing is ever guaranteed, and all that came before doesn't predicate what you might do next.

Maya Lin

You couldn't put me in a social group setting. I'm probably a terrible anarchist deep down.

Maya Lin

We were unusually brought up; there was no gender differentiation. I was never thought of as any less than my brother.

Maya Lin

My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar.

Maya Lin

OK, it was black, it was below grade, I was female, Asian American, young, too young to have served. Yet I think none of the opposition in that sense hurt me.

Maya Lin

I'm not in a hurry to do a lot of projects. I am very resolved in each project I take on.

Maya Lin

To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.

Maya Lin

When I was very little, we would get letters from China, in Chinese, and they' be censored. We were a very insular little family.

Maya Lin

When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business.

Maya Lin

How we are using up our home, how we are living and polluting the planet is frightening. It was evident when I was a child. It's more evident now.

Maya Lin

My dad was dean of fine arts at the university. I was casting bronzes in the school foundry. I was using the university as a playground.

Maya Lin

If we can't face death, we'll never overcome it. You have to look it straight in the eye. Then you can turn around and walk back out into the light.

Maya Lin

Author Bio

  • NameMaya Lin
  • DescriptionAmerican architect
  • BornOctober 5, 1959
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionArchitect; Sculptor
  • WorksAbove And Below; Vietnam Veterans Memorial
  • AwardsRome Prize; National Medal Of Arts; National Women's Hall Of Fame