Thom Mayne

“So at a time in which the media give the public everything it wants and desires, maybe art should adopt a much more aggressive attitude towards the public. I myself am very much inclined to take this position.”

“Descriptions of my work depress me. They make me feel pinned down.”

“My buildings don't speak in words but by means of their own spaciousness.”

“I've learned that in order to achieve what I wanted, it made more sense to negotiate than to defend the autonomy of my work by pounding my fist on the table.”

“Scientific reality is the modern human condition, and you can see that in the symbolic nature of my work.”

“We're producing spaces that accommodate human activity. And what I'm interested in is not the styling of that, but the relationship of that as it enhances that activity. And that directly connects to ideas of city-making.”

“Architecture is the beginning of something because it's - if you're not involved in first principles, if you're not involved in the absolute, the beginning of that generative process, it's cake decoration.”

“The aesthetic of architecture has to be rooted in a broader idea about human activities like walking, relaxing and communicating. Architecture thinks about how these activities can be given added value.”

“I think a lot of people have the Frank Lloyd Wright model in their brains. The architect comes in with this act of creation and lays it down, and that's it. But that's not me.”

“In architecture, you arrive so late. I look at doctors, lawyers I know, and they're all buying boats and bailing out at 62. My career is just getting started.”

“I believe that artistic activities change people. You do effect change. I see architecture as a political, social and cultural act - that is its primary role.”

“I've been such an outsider my whole life.”

“Architecture is a result of a process of asking questions and testing them and re-interrogating and changing in a repetitive way.”

“In Paris, there has to be a presence. History becomes the most interesting when it's compared to the present. I mean there's a whole group of people that want to build new buildings that look like old buildings.”

“I lived in a state of rage from 12 to 20. Until college, I was beyond an outsider. I was a voyeur of life.”

“Our idea of nature is increasingly being determined by scientific developments. And they have become decisive for our image of reality.”

“I've always been interested in an architecture of resistance - architecture that has some power over the way we live. Working under adversarial conditions could be seen as a plus because you're offering alternatives. Still, there are situations that make you ask the questions: 'Do I want to be a part of this?'”

“Architecture is the story of how we see ourselves. It is the architect's job to service everyday life.”

“So I am totally aware that when I defend the autonomy of art I'm going counter to my own development. It's more an instinctive reaction, meant to protect the private aspect of the work, the part I am most interested in and which nowadays is at risk in our culture.”

“I'm often called an old-fashioned modernist. But the modernists had the absurd idea that architecture could heal the world. That's impossible. And today nobody expects architects to have these grand visions any more.”