Oscar Niemeyer Quotes

Quotes about:

• The architect's role is to fight for a better world, where he can produce an architecture that serves everyone and not just a group of privileged people.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Fighting, People, Groups

  68 Copy quote

• It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve - the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Country, Men, Curves

  "Plans, Sections and Elevations: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century". Book by Richard Weston, 2004.

  100 Copy quote

• My work is not about "form follows function," but "form follows beauty" or, even better, "form follows feminine."

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Feminine Beauty, Architect, Form

  "'Form Follows Feminine': Niemeyer, 90, Is Still Going Strong". Tracy Metz, Architectural Record (p. 35), December 1997.

  89 Copy quote

• When you have a large space to conquer, the curve is the natural solution.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Art, Curves, Space

  "Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer". Book by Oscar Niemeyer, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1998.

  35 Copy quote

• Today, architecture is invention. It isn't enough to just be rational - It must also be beautiful.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Beautiful, Today, Architecture

  48 Copy quote

• The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Want, Break, Worst

  "Why Oscar Niemeyer is king of curves" by Tom Dyckhoff, www.thetimes.co.uk. December 12, 2007.

  40 Copy quote

• What attracts me are free and sensual curves. The curves we find in mountains, in the waves of the sea, in the body of the woman we love.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Curves, Sea, Sensual

  "Oscar Niemeyer, architect of Brazil's capital, dies aged 104" by Jonathan Watts, www.theguardian.com. December 5, 2012.

  46 Copy quote

• Curves are the essence of my work because they are the essence of Brazil, pure and simple.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Simple, Essence, Curves

  37 Copy quote

• I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Art, Causes, Emotion

  "Oscar Niemeyer, architect of Brazil's capital, dies aged 104" by Jonathan Watts, www.theguardian.com. December 5, 2012.

  9 Copy quote

• Surprise is key in all art.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Art, Keys, Surprise

  12 Copy quote

• For me beauty is valued more than anything - the beauty that is manifest in a curved line or in an act of creativity.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Creativity, Lines, Manifest

  4 Copy quote

• We have to have dreams, even if they never come true.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Dream, Ifs

  29 Copy quote

• My architecture is easy to understand. And enjoy. I hope it also is hard to forget.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Architecture, Forget, Easy

  33 Copy quote

• Life is more important than architecture.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Important, Architecture, Life Is

  31 Copy quote

• I pick up my pen. It flows. A building appears. There it is. There is nothing more to say.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Flow, Building, Pens

  "I pick up my pen. A building appears". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. August 1, 2007.

  15 Copy quote

• Humanity needs dreams to be able to survive the miseries of daily existence, even if only for an instant.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Dream, Humanity, Needs

  24 Copy quote

• It was the drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Light, Drawing, Architecture

  "Oscar Niemeyer Talks About Brasilia, Communism, Regrets". Interview with Michael Luongo, www.bloomberg.com. December 7, 2012.

  31 Copy quote

• Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Badass, Bad Ass, Important

  "The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer". Book by Oscar Niemeyer, 1998.

  29 Copy quote

• Architecture will always express the technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Country, Struggle, Giving

  "Oscar Niemeyer, Architect Who Gave Brasi­lia Its Flair, Dies at 104" by Nicolai Ouroussoff, www.nytimes.com. December 5, 2012.

  31 Copy quote

• Architecture is invention.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Architecture, Invention

  "Celebrating Niemeyer, Brazil's Modernist Master". "All Things Considered", www.npr.org. November 12, 2010.

  30 Copy quote

• We hated Bauhaus. It was a bad time in architecture. They just didn’t have any talent. All they had were rules. Even for knives and forks they created rules. Picasso would never have accepted rules. The house is like a machine? No! The mechanical is ugly. The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Knives, House, Machines

  "Why Oscar Niemeyer is king of curves" by Tom Dyckhoff, www.thetimes.co.uk. December 12, 2007.

  30 Copy quote

• My ambition has always been to reduce a building's support to a minimum. The more we diminish supporting structures, the more audacious and important the architecture is. That has been my life's work.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Ambition, Support, Important

  "Architect of Optimism". Interview with Angel Gurria-Quintana, www.ft.com. April 13, 2007.

  31 Copy quote

• The artistic capability of reinforced concrete is so fantastic - that is the way to go.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Way, Artistic, Fantastic

  11 Copy quote

• Camus says in 'The Stranger' that reason is the enemy of imagination. Sometimes you have to put reason aside and make something beautiful.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Beautiful, Imagination, Enemy

  28 Copy quote

• Right angles don't attract me. Nor straight, hard and inflexible lines created by man.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Men, Lines, Angle

  "Oscar Niemeyer, architect of Brazil's capital, dies aged 104" by Jonathan Watts, www.theguardian.com. December 5, 2012.

  11 Copy quote

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