Istenek Jelk Pei Quotes

#1. When I got the opportunity to do the new wing [the Schauhaus] for the German Historical Museum, for instance, I didn't see it as an opportunity for my own ego, to do something so exciting that every architectural publication would want to put it on the cover. I accepted it because I knew it was going to be a very difficult project, and I wasn't sure I could do something exciting there. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#2. Architecture is the very mirror of life.You only have to cast your eyes on buildings to feel the presence of the past, the spirit of a place; they are the reflection of society. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#3. I didn't want to think about a project that I couldn't finish. That's a kind of temptation. One has to realize one's limitations. Why kid yourself? #Quote by I.M. Pei

#4. At the beginning, I thought the best Islamic work was in Spain - the mosque in Cordoba, the Alhambra in Granada. But as I learned more, my ideas shifted. I traveled to Egypt, and to the Middle East many times.I found the most wonderful examples of Islamic work in Cairo, it turns out. I'd visited mosques there before, but I didn't see them with the same eye as I did this time. They truly said something to me about Islamic architecture. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#5. The keen Saracen blade sliced through the archbishop's shield down to his arm, but Turpin's aim was truer. Corsablis's turbaned head rolled in the dust as the prelate swung his mighty weapon. The Berber's steed raced on, bearing a headless rider who soon toppled from his mount. Turpin, galloping on to where the press was thickest, turned in his saddle and addressed the head where it lay: 'Scoundrel pagan, you've met your end! So be it always with the enemies of Christ! #Quote by Mario Andrew Pei

#6. Why is it that everyone else can look like they're part of a zombie hunting party, but I still have to worry about fashion?"
He won't stop snickering. "You look like a leopard-spotted Shar-Pei."
I think those are the little pug-like dogs drowning in massive folds of skin. "You're scarring me, you know. It could haunt me for the rest of my life to be called a wrinkly little dog at the tender age of seventeen."
"Yup. A sensitive girl. That just defines you, Penryn. #Quote by Susan Ee

#7. Luxembourg was and still is today a crossroads, the place where Germany meets the rest of Europe. The country lost part of its territory to Belgium in the 1800s, and during World Wars I and II the German military overran it. Very few people have visited Luxembourg - when I went there and looked at it, I said, my God, it's built on a rock. And within the rock they had a castle, and within the city there's a network of tunnels so the residents could move around and defend themselves. That was of great interest to me. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#8. I missed all the people and places I didn't know if I would ever see again – my grandparents and their cute little house at Basin Head, where we used to visit the beach everyday and I would run barefoot over the singing sands and swim in the impossibly enormous ocean. #Quote by Rachael Arsenault

#9. For Kips Bay, I had a wonderful client, William Zeckendorf, who was willing to gamble with me on using concrete and not brick for a high-rise apartment building. That was very innovative at the time. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#10. One piece of advice can be universally handed out, and it applies equally to speaking, understanding, reading, and writing. If in the course of any of these language activities, you run across words whose meaning or use baffles you, don't by-pass them. Look them up in the dictionary and familiarize yourself with them. #Quote by Mario Pei

#11. You cannot defend your design without knowing what you're designing for. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#12. No foreign architect of stature, such as I. M. Pei, resides in Japan. Foreign architects come to Japan on short-term contracts, erect a skyscraper or a museum, and then leave. But subtle and sophisticated approaches to services and design - the core elements of modern building technology - cannot be transmitted in this way. Japan is left with the empty shells of architectural ideas, the hardware without the software. #Quote by Alex Kerr

#13. Romanians often claim to have the language that most closely resembles ancient Latin. But in fact, according to Mario Pei, if you wish to hear what ancient Latin sounded like, you should listen to Lugudorese, an Italic dialect spoken in central Sardinia, which in many respects is unchanged from the Latin of 1,500 years ago. #Quote by Bill Bryson

#14. It is not an individual act, architecture. You have to consider your client. Only out of that can you produce great architecture. You cannot work in the abstract #Quote by I.M. Pei

#15. Good architecture lets nature in. #Quote by Mario Pei

#16. I've been active all my life. In 1990 I retired from my firm, I.M. Pei & Partners, and for two years I didn't do much. Then I started to get kind of antsy, so I decided, I'm going to do some more work. And I chose to do work outside the U.S. because I've spent 45 years here and I wanted to learn more about what's happening in the rest of the world. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#17. Science and technology contribute to the fast-expanding vocabularies of all living civilized tongues at a faster rate than all other fields of human endeavor put together. #Quote by Mario Pei

#18. Let's do it right. This is for the ages. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#19. I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#20. I travel to the Middle East, I travel to China, I travel to Europe. It's all very rewarding - the only problem is the travel is getting more and more difficult for me now. Ten years ago I would have enjoyed it a lot more. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#21. I cannot work and listen to Wagner at the same time, nor Mahler, nor Beethoven's late quartets. I enjoy listening to Chopin's piano music when I work. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#22. Be the best, not necessarily the original. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#23. Many of the projects I'm most proud of are tall buildings, especially the housing projects. In New York I have two: one in Kips Bay and one at New York University. At that time, those projects were most challenging. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#24. Of all the words that exist in any language only a bare minority are pure, unadulterated, original roots. The majority are "coined" words, forms that have been in one way or another created, augmented, cut down, combined, and recombined to convey new needed meanings, The language mint is more than a mint; it is a great manufacturing center, where all sorts of productive activities go on unceasingly. #Quote by Mario Andrew Pei

#25. The Italian landscape has always harmonized the vulgar and the Vitruvian: the contorni around the duomo, the portiere'S laundry across the padrone's portone, Supercortemaggiore against the Romanesque apse. Naked children have never played in our fountains, and I. M. Pei will never be happy on Route 66. #Quote by Robert Venturi

#26. Atticus: You hear that? The nice blonde in her thirties is actually over 140 years old. :
Oberon: She must use that Oil of Olay stuff. I wonder if it would get rid of the wrinkles on a shar-pei? #Quote by Kevin Hearne

#27. Great artists need great clients. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#28. On a daily basis, my home life is very simple. I spend about 2 hours every morning reading the newspaper. As my two assistants will tell you, I don't come to work in the mornings, for two reasons. First, I want to be informed - that means I go through The New York Times every day, and then I watch some news on television. The second is, mornings are the best time to communicate with my clients abroad. #Quote by I.M. Pei

#29. Stop worrying about missed opportunities and start looking for new ones. #Quote by I.M. Pei