Frank Gehry Quotes

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Frank Gehry

Profession : Architect

Birth : February 28, 1929

For me, every day is a new thing. I approach each project with a new insecurity, almost like the first project I ever did. And I get the sweats. I go in and start working, I'm not sure where I'm going. If I knew where I was going I wouldn't do it.

Frank Gehry

Liquid architecture. It's like jazz - you improvise, you work together, you play off each other, you make something, they make something. And I think it's a way of - for me, it's a way of trying to understand the city, and what might happen in the city.

Frank Gehry

My father was an urchin that lived in Hell's Kitchen. He was part of a family of nine. I mean, there were times that were better and worse, but mostly, by the time we got to L.A., they'd lost whatever they had. And it was a sad time. And both he and I became truck drivers for different companies.

Frank Gehry

When I was a kid, my father didn't really have much hope for me. He thought I was a dreamer; he didn't think I would amount to anything. My mother also.

Frank Gehry

I think my attitudes about the past are very traditional. You can't ignore history; you can't escape it even if you want to. You might as well know where you come from, and you might as well know that everything has been done in some shape or form.

Frank Gehry

I would like to make a building as intellectually driven as it is sculptural and as positive as it would be acceptable to hope.

Frank Gehry

You've got to bumble forward into the unknown.

Frank Gehry

The best advice I've received is to be yourself. The best artists do that.

Frank Gehry

If I knew where I was going, I wouldn't do it. When I can predict or plan it, I don't do it.

Frank Gehry

I don't want to do architecture that's dry and dull.

Frank Gehry

A lot of people don't get it, but I design from the inside out so that the finished product looks inevitable somehow. I think it's important to create spaces that people like to be in, that are humanistic.

Frank Gehry

Architecture has always been a very idealistic profession. It's about making the world a better place, and it works over the generations because people go on vacation and they look for it.

Frank Gehry

Chicago's one of the rare places where architecture is more visible.

Frank Gehry

A well-designed home has to be very comfortable. I can't stand the aesthetes, the minimal thing. I can't live that way. My home has to be filled with stuff - mostly paintings, sculpture, my fish lamps, cardboard furniture, lots of books.

Frank Gehry

You have freedom, so you have to make choices - and at the point when I make a choice, the building starts to look like a Frank Gehry building. It's a signature.

Frank Gehry

The fact is I'm an opportunist. I'll take materials around me, materials on my table, and work with them as I'm searching for an idea that works.

Frank Gehry

I approach each project with a new insecurity, almost like the first project I ever did, and I get the sweats, I go in and start working, I'm not sure where I'm going.

Frank Gehry

Architecture is a service business. An architect is given a program, budget, place, and schedule. Sometimes the end product rises to art - or at least people call it that.

Frank Gehry

An architect is given a program, budget, place, and schedule. Sometimes the end product rises to art - or at least people call it that.

Frank Gehry

Some people may say my curved panels look like sails. Well, I am a sailor, so I guess I probably do use that metaphor in my work - though not consciously.

Frank Gehry