Oscar Niemeyer Quotes

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.

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.

My work is not about "form follows function," but "form follows beauty" or, even better, "form follows feminine."

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

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

The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.

Curves are the essence of my work because they are the essence of Brazil, pure and simple.

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.

I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness.

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

Surprise is key in all art.

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

My architecture is easy to understand. And enjoy. I hope it also is hard to forget.

Life is more important than architecture.

Humanity needs dreams to be able to survive the miseries of daily existence, even if only for an instant.

I pick up my pen. It flows. A building appears. There it is. There is nothing more to say.

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

Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live.

Architecture is invention.

Architecture will always express the technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle.

We hated Bauhaus. It was a bad time in architecture. They just didn’t have any talent. All they had were rules. Even for knives and forks they created rules. Picasso would never have accepted rules. The house is like a machine? No! The mechanical is ugly. The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.

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.

Camus says in 'The Stranger' that reason is the enemy of imagination. Sometimes you have to put reason aside and make something beautiful.

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