Jean Nouvel

“I like to play with architecture! It's my favorite game.”

“Art should be created for life, not for the museum.”

“It is not possible to design always the same. How to be different in each different place - that is the most important work and duty of the architect to find out.”

“I think architecture has to be a gift.”

“If there was a fire at my house I would throw more things on it. The only thing I would take out? Myself!”

“Each new situation requires a new architecture.”

“I generally hate the luxury modern apartment with too many things out of sight and so clean you cannot touch.”

“My buildings are more famous than me.”

“I don't like the idea that one hotel could be better than another. In any city, I try to find a hotel that has the identity of that place - Claridge's in London, the Danieli or Cipriani in Venice. In New York, I stay at the Mercer Hotel; it is so much in the character of SoHo.”

“I like English parks.”