“I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.”
Architecture
“When I was very little, we would get letters from China, in Chinese, and they' be censored. We were a very insular little family.”
FamilyAll Quotes by Maya Lin
“The process I go through in the art and the architecture, I actually want it to be almost childlike. Sometimes I think it's magical.”
Architecture“I started studying what the nature of a monument is and what a monument should be. And for the World War III memorial I designed a futile, almost terrifying passage that ends nowhere.”
War“I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.”
Architecture“I left science, then I went into art, but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them.”
Architecture“If we can't face death, we'll never overcome it. You have to look it straight in the eye. Then you can turn around and walk back out into the light.”
Death“I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was.”
Politics“The role of art in society differs for every artist.”
Society“How we are using up our home, how we are living and polluting the planet is frightening. It was evident when I was a child. It's more evident now.”
Home“The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn't about money. It was about teaching, or learning.”
Learning“Some of your teachers are actually closer in age to you than you think.”
Age“Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.”
Architecture“To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.”
Freedom“Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist.”
Architecture“Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture.”
Architecture“I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s, and into my 30s, I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character.”
Architecture“When I was very little, we would get letters from China, in Chinese, and they' be censored. We were a very insular little family.”
Family“When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business.”
Business“The definition of a modern approach to war is the acknowledgement of individual lives lost.”
War“It was a requirement by the veterans to list the 57,000 names. We're reaching a time that we'll acknowledge the individual in a war on a national level.”
War