I. M. Pei Quotes

• 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.

  I. M. Pei

  Life, Eye, Reflection

  1989 Les Grands desseins du Louvre (with E J Biasini).

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• I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity.

  I. M. Pei

  Art, Believe, Foundation

  I. M. Pei (1983). “The Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1983: Presented to Ieoh Ming Pei”

  163 Copy quote

• Life is architecture and architecture is the mirror of life.

  I. M. Pei

  Mirrors, Architecture, Life Is

  89 Copy quote

• Success is a collection of problems solved.

  I. M. Pei

  Problem, Collections

  109 Copy quote

• Stop worrying about missed opportunities and start looking for new ones.

  I. M. Pei

  Opportunity, Worry, Missed Opportunity

  87 Copy quote

• Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history but it’s not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don’t want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.

  I. M. Pei

  Times Have Changed, Roots, Want

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• I want to bring out the best in a community and contribute something of permanent value.

  I. M. Pei

  Community, Want, Permanent

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• 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

  I. M. Pei

  Clients, Architecture, Individual

  86 Copy quote

• Be the best, not necessarily the original.

  I. M. Pei

  Being The Best, Originals

  40 Copy quote

• You cannot defend your design without knowing what you're designing for.

  I. M. Pei

  Knowing, Design

  Source: archtalks.com

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• Let's do it right. This is for the ages.

  I. M. Pei

  Age

  1978 Quoted byJCarter Brown, Director, National Gallery of Art, Washington, in theWashington Post, 27 Aug1995. On his design for the gallery's East Building which was soaring to an unbudgeted cost of $94.4m.

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• Design is something you have to put your hand to.

  I. M. Pei

  Hands, Design

  61 Copy quote

• Great artists need great clients.

  I. M. Pei

  Artist, Needs, Clients

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  52 Copy quote

• 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? 

  I. M. Pei

  Kids, Thinking, Temptation

  Source: archtalks.com

  39 Copy quote

• François Mitterrand was a student of architecture, he had done a lot of research before he called me. He said, "You did something special at the National Gallery of Art in Washington - you brought the new and the old together." But John Russell Pope finished the West Building in 1941, so when the East Building opened it was only about 40 years old. But the Louvre is 800 years old! A much bigger design challenge.

  I. M. Pei

  Art, Years, Design

  Source: archtalks.com

  26 Copy quote

• 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.

  I. M. Pei

  Piano Music, Listening, Mahler

  I. M. Pei, Gero von Boehm (2000). “Conversations with I. M. Pei: Light is the Key”, Prestel Pub

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• I was born in Suzhou, a city not very far from Shanghai. It's a very interesting town - there is a long artist's tradition there, especially during the Ming and Ching dynasties, which produced many, many scholars and painters and so forth. That's where my family lived for 600, 700 years.

  I. M. Pei

  Artist, Years, Cities

  Source: archtalks.com

  30 Copy quote

• Qatar does not have much history, it's a new emirate. So I couldn't draw on the history of the country; its history is really just being a desert. But I thought, the one thing I must learn about for this project is the Islamic faith. So I read about Islam and Islamic architecture, and the more I studied the more I realized where the best Islamic buildings were.

  I. M. Pei

  Country, Islamic, Qatar

  Source: archtalks.com

  25 Copy quote

• I haven't taken any new projects in the past years - I told myself, if I cannot live long enough to finish it, I don't want it.

  I. M. Pei

  Taken, Past, Years

  Source: archtalks.com

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• 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.

  I. M. Pei

  Islamic, Eye, Egypt

  Source: archtalks.com

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• I know something about the civilization of China, with my background, obviously, and I think I know something about American history. But that's about all. And I've traveled all over the world, and for a long time I didn't know very much about it, really.

  I. M. Pei

  Thinking, Civilization, Long

  Source: archtalks.com

  26 Copy quote

• 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.

  I. M. Pei

  Country, Military, War

  Source: archtalks.com

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• 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.

  I. M. Pei

  Opportunity, Museums, Wings

  Source: archtalks.com

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  I. M. Pei

  Years, Two, Work Out

  Source: archtalks.com

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• 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.

  I. M. Pei

  New York, Two, Challenges

  Source: archtalks.com

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