It's disappointing to see films become pure entertainment, so that it's not an art form.

Every mind which has given itself to self-expression in art is aware of a directing agency outside its conscious control which it has agreed to label 'inspiration'.

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

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.

I was always making things. Even though art was what I did every day, it didn't even occur to me that I would be an artist.

I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.

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.

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.

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.

You have to have conviction and completely question everything and anything you do. No matter how much you study, no matter how much you know, the side of your brain that has the smarts won't necessarily help you in making art.

In art or architecture your project is only done when you say it's done. If you want to rip it apart at the eleventh hour and start all over again, you never finish. I was one of those crazy creatures.

The role of art in society differs for every artist.

Art doesn't transform. It just plain forms.

I like to pretend that my art has nothing to do with me.

I think we're much smarter than we were. Everybody knows that abstract art can be art, and most people know that they may not like it, even if they understand there's another purpose to it.