John Osborne Quotes

Our roots are clinging, we shouldn't knock down so many old 'buildings.'

Architecture is exposed to life. If its body is sensitive enough, it can assume a quality that bears witness to past life.

I think architecture has to be a gift.

I love antique architecture, so if I have any indulgences, I have owned and renovated and reconstructed a lot of old houses.

Two of my theatres are 1930s and the other five are by Sprague, the greatest Edwardian architect of the lot. They've needed a lot of work doing to them but they were built very well.

You can't have the finest buildings if they're not in focus. They become like nice cars parked on the street.

Architecture is measured against the past; you build in the future, and you try to imagine the future.

Architecture is about aging well, about precision and authenticity. There is much more to the success of a building than what you can see. I'm not suggesting that gestural architecture is always superficial, but solid reasoning has its place.

For a house, somewhere near Los Angeles I found an old church. Very old, no longer used. So we moved the church to the land, and I took off the steeple, and I got my hands dirty.

To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it.

It is for all these buildings, therefore, of all times and styles, that we plead, and call upon those who have to deal with them to put Protection in the place of Restoration, to stave off decay by daily care, to prop a perilous wall or mend a leaky roof by such means as are obviously meant for support or covering, and show no pretence of other art, and otherwise to resist all tampering with either the fabric or ornament of the building as it stands; if it has become inconvenient for its present use, to raise another building rather than alter or enlarge the old one; in fine to treat our ancient buildings as monuments of a bygone art, created by bygone manners, that modern art cannot meddle with without destroying.

Recycling old buildings to show art is very important.

I want the Dead Sea, like Masada, to be part of UNESCO's world heritage.

I've often wondered if the trade-off for growing up in the relative newness and freshness of the West Coast was befuddlement when it comes to historical preservation. We don't have many old things, and we don't really know what to do with the few that are around when our default response is to compost or field burn.

New ideas often need old buildings.

Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in

I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.

It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house! alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy former one.

Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.

In Lagos there's a really strong case to resurrect strong parts. Embedded in all of it are some amazing pieces of planning, amazing pieces of engineering and interaction. For instance, the campus of Lagos University is stunningly beautiful, efficient and generous, and that needs to be recognised and preserved.

I guess that anything we manage to save from history is a miracle.

I think it's clever how Rome have kept a load of old stuff. There's no overheads, yet people are going over there to see it.

When we hear a house has fallen do we ask if the ceiling fell with it?

I tell people if it aint broke don't fix it.

Architecture is the work of nations