Philip Johnson

I guess I want to make money just like other people, perhaps more than most people.

I always think of buildings in their settings, but so do other architects.

Glibness will get your anywhere.

You cannot not know history.

Dullness is the enemy.

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.

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.

Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful.

The people with money to build today are corporations - they are our popes and Medicis. The sense of pride is why they build.

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 away some of mine.

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

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

Processionalism is primary - how you get from one place to another, the relationships and effects of spaces as you move about in them. That's worked out awfully well in the State Theater. I'm a 'straight-in' man myself; I'm too nervous, I like to know where I am. I also like to know where I'm going.

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.

I'm about four skyscrapers behind.

In my own work, I'd say I'm a classicist, but I look everywhere for my solutions. I don't study the toilet-living habits of my clients, although that's a popular approach. First, I think of every building in history that has been similar in purpose. Then I think of the functional program - that's a major part of the study.

I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original.

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.

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.