Quotes by Philip Johnson

About Philip Johnson:

Philip Cortelyou Johnson is especially known for his postmodern work since the 1980s.
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

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.

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.

Philip Johnson

Architecture is the art of how to waste space.

Philip Johnson

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

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 t...

Philip Johnson

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

Philip Johnson

Architecture is art, nothing else.

Philip Johnson

The future of architecture is culture.

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

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.

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 awa...

Philip Johnson

Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston.

Philip Johnson

I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach?

Philip Johnson

I'm about four skyscrapers behind.

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.

Philip Johnson

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

Philip Johnson

The first complete sentence out of my mouth was probably that line about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds.

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.

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.

Philip Johnson

I'm a chameleon, so changeable. I see myself as a gadfly and a questioner.

Philip Johnson

Author Bio

  • NamePhilip Johnson
  • DescriptionAmerican architect (1906–2005)
  • AliasesPhilip Cortelyou Johnson
  • BornJuly 8, 1906
  • DiedJanuary 25, 2005
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionArchitect
  • WorksCrystal Cathedral; Philip-Johnson-Haus
  • AwardsPritzker Architecture Prize; AIA Gold Medal