Quotes About Pei

#1. Would like to chop you up into small, manageable pieces and grill you on a hibachi, then feed you to my shar-pei. But all that comes out is Welcome to moviefone!

Augusten Burroughs

#2. It's a huge change for your body. You don't even want to look in the mirror after you've had a baby, because your stomach is just hanging there like a Shar-Pei.

Cindy Crawford

#3. I remember, as a young architect, people always talked about I. M. Pei's concrete. He had a particular specification no one else knew.

Annabelle Selldorf

#4. A good friends should be able to tell you anything. Maybe your boyfriend's screwing around, or a dress that makes your love handles hang over like a shar-pei's skin? In either case, if they're not brave enough to tell it like it is? They're not your best friend.

Emma Chase

#5. Atticus: You hear that? The nice blonde in her thirties is actually over 140 years old. :
Oberon: She must use that Oil of Olay stuff. I wonder if it would get rid of the wrinkles on a shar-pei?

Kevin Hearne

#6. It's amazing how you meet people through other people. I knew a racecar driver, Stefan Johansson, who was very hot. He introduced me to Jean Todt. He introduced me to a French doctor. He introduced me to a French architect who redid the Louvre with I.M. Pei. He introduced me to Daniel Boulud.

James Rosenquist

#7. I want to bring out the best in a community and contribute something of permanent value.

I.M. Pei

#8. Good architecture lets nature in.

Mario Pei

#9. I haven't taken any new projects in the past years - I told myself, if I cannot live long enough to finish it, I don't want it.

I.M. Pei

#10. I travel to the Middle East, I travel to China, I travel to Europe. It's all very rewarding - the only problem is the travel is getting more and more difficult for me now. Ten years ago I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

I.M. Pei

#11. Many of the projects I'm most proud of are tall buildings, especially the housing projects. In New York I have two: one in Kips Bay and one at New York University. At that time, those projects were most challenging.

I.M. Pei

#12. Great artists need great clients.

I.M. Pei

#13. At home, I have a wife, fortunately, and my children are all grown, and I have many grandchildren. I spend weekends with my grandchildren; I adore them.

I.M. Pei

#14. I cannot work and listen to Wagner at the same time, nor Mahler, nor Beethoven's late quartets. I enjoy listening to Chopin's piano music when I work.

I.M. Pei

#15. Architecture is the very mirror of life.You only have to cast your eyes on buildings to feel the presence of the past, the spirit of a place; they are the reflection of society.

I.M. Pei

#16. Let's do it right. This is for the ages.

I.M. Pei

#17. Life is architecture and architecture is the mirror of life.

I.M. Pei

#18. I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity.

I.M. Pei

#19. I know something about the civilization of China, with my background, obviously, and I think I know something about American history. But that's about all. And I've traveled all over the world, and for a long time I didn't know very much about it, really.

I.M. Pei

#20. Stop worrying about missed opportunities and start looking for new ones.

I.M. Pei

#21. If you will scoff at language study how, save in terms of language, will you scoff?

Mario Pei

#22. Design is something you have to put your hand to,

I.M. Pei

#23. I was born in Suzhou, a city not very far from Shanghai. It's a very interesting town - there is a long artist's tradition there, especially during the Ming and Ching dynasties, which produced many, many scholars and painters and so forth. That's where my family lived for 600, 700 years.

I.M. Pei

#24. It is not an individual act, architecture. You have to consider your client. Only out of that can you produce great architecture. You cannot work in the abstract

I.M. Pei

#25. Science and technology contribute to the fast-expanding vocabularies of all living civilized tongues at a faster rate than all other fields of human endeavor put together.

Mario Pei

#26. Be the best, not necessarily the original.

I.M. Pei

#27. Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history but it's not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don't want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.

I.M. Pei

#28. You cannot defend your design without knowing what you're designing for.

I.M. Pei

#29. Success is a collection of problems solved.

I.M. Pei

#30. I didn't want to think about a project that I couldn't finish. That's a kind of temptation. One has to realize one's limitations. Why kid yourself?

I.M. Pei

#31. For Kips Bay, I had a wonderful client, William Zeckendorf, who was willing to gamble with me on using concrete and not brick for a high-rise apartment building. That was very innovative at the time.

I.M. Pei