68 Quotes by Thom Mayne

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

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've been such an outsider my whole life.

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.

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

You might say that when you step inside, you're entering a honorific space, but that's something totally different than experiencing it. And in architecture the experience comes first. That has the deepest effect on us.

You can't make anything authentic by asking people what they want because they don't know what they want. That's what they're looking at you for.

I'm interested in conflict and confrontation.

So we can't go backwards, we can only go where the evolutionary trajectory is taking us and attune our ideas about ourselves and our existence to that course.