Oscar Niemeyer Quotes

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

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

Life is more important than architecture.

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

I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced concrete. [ ... ] This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches, and the beautiful suntanned women.

A church is something very beautiful. It is nice when people feel happy in it. But I am not a religious man. Look at us, and then at the infinity of space. We are rather small insignificant creatures, wouldn't you say?

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

It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve - the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman.

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.

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.

Surprise is key in all art.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

Architecture was my way of expressing my ideals: to be simple, to create a world equal to everyone, to look at people with optimism, that everyone has a gift. I don't want anything but general happiness. Why is that bad?

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

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

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

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

My ambition has always been to reduce a building's support to a minimum. The more we diminish supporting structures, the more audacious and important the architecture is. That has been my life's work.

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

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

The date is not important. The age is not important. Time is not important. Life is very fleeting. It's important to be gentle and optimistic. We look behind and think what we've done in this life has been good. It was simple; it was modest. Everyone creates their own story and moves on. That's it. I don't feel particularly important. What we create is not important. We're very insignificant.

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

I have always accepted and respected all other schools of architecture, from the chill and elemental structures of Mies van der Rohe to the imagination and delirium of Gaudi. I must design what pleases me in a way that is naturally linked to my roots and the country of my origin.

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.