Oscar Niemeyer Quotes

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Life is more important than architecture.

We need to feel that life is important; we need that fantasy so we can live a little better.

Architecture is invention.

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

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

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

It is not with architecture that one can disseminate any political ideology.

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

Architecture is my work, and Ive spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings.

I was attracted by the curve — the liberated, sensual curve suggested by the possibilities of new technology yet so often recalled in venerable old baroque churches.

Surprise is key in all art.

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

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

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

Turning 102 is crap, and there is nothing to commemorate.

The challenge of a cathedral is very good for architectural inventiveness.

There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space.

I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.

When I was very little my mother said I used to draw in the air with my fingers. I needed a pencil. Once I could hold one, I have drawn every day since.

I enter my studio at 9 a.m. I have lunch here, I return right away to my work and I go out to dinner at 8 p.m. My daily tasks vary very much.

I am a Brazilian before I am an architect. I cannot separate the two.

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

Architecture does not change anything. It's always on the side of the wealthy. The important thing is to believe that it can make life better.

When students leave college, they are like children who know nothing about the problems of life, and don't have a political stance.

I think of myself as no more than 60. What I could do at 60, I can still do now.

I like talking to priests, to Catholics. Everyone has their beliefs.

Sometimes I lose a whole morning waiting on journalists and other people who look for me. But I always find some time for reading, talking to my friends and feeling what is happening in this world.

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

Form follows beauty.

Architecture is my work, and I've spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings.