Well, I thought he was immortal but Mr. Johnson has finally succumbed to time. For those of you who live in Houston, Dallas or Ft. Worth, you might want to read this.
"Toward the end of his life, Johnson went public with some private matters -- his homosexuality and his past as a disciple of Hitler-style fascism. On the latter, he said he spent much time in Berlin in the 1930s and became "fascinated with power," but added he did not consider that an excuse.
""I have no excuse (for) such utter, unbelievable stupidity. ... I don't know how you expiate guilt," he says.
"He blamed his homosexuality for causing a nervous breakdown while he was a student at Harvard and said that in 1977 he asked the New Yorker magazine to omit references to it in a profile, fearing he might lose the AT&T commission, which he called "the job of my life."
"In the 1950s, Johnson reflected on his career and what he hoped to achieve.
""I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty," he said, "so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs -- at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral."
On his dismissal from the New England Life Insurance Co in 1985
"Architects are pretty much high-class whores. We can turn down projects the way they can turn down some clients, but we've both got to say yes to someone if we want to stay in business."
"All architects want to live beyond their deaths."
I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach?
I'm about four skyscrapers behind.
"Architecture is the art of how to waste space."
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