Peter Eisenman Quotes

Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect's task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise.

Anybody can build a building, putting some doors into it, but how many times have you been in a building that moves you to tears the way Beethoven's 'Eighth' does?

Sometimes art is just about getting a reaction, that's really the end-all be-all.

One way I judge music is whether it compels me to listen to it.

You listen to something like 'Beast Mode,' and it's almost like looking at a pretty painting.

Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.

The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good? If, then, it is asserted that there is a comprehensive formula, including all things which are in themselves good, and that whatever else is good, is not so as an end, but as a mean, the formula may be accepted or rejected, but is not a subject of what is commonly understood by proof.

Purer colors... have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.

The tulips are too red...they hurt me.

The object of music is a Sound. The end; to delight, and move various Affections in us.

When, indeed, men speak of Beauty, they mean, precisely, not a quality, as is supposed, but an effect - they refer, in short, just to that intense and pure elevation of soul - not of intellect, or of heart.

The first merit of pictures is the effect which they can produce upon the mind; — and the first step of a sensible man should be to receive involuntary effects from them. Pleasure and inspiration first, analysis afterward.

Bad art is never really enjoyed in the same sense in which good art is enjoyed. It is only "liked": it never startles, prostrates, and takes captive.

I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression.

I always feel like when I've listened to a great song I know it, 'cuz it's the only time I'll ever get goosebumps or something like that.

I don't know why people see the things that they do. I wouldn't pay to see them, they don't touch me or move me in any way.

Colors produce a spiritual vibration, the impression they create is important only as a step towards this vibration.

The truth is that art does not teach; it makes you feel, and any teaching that may arise from the feeling is an extra, and must not be stressed too much. In the modern world, and in Canada as much as anywhere, we are obsessed with the notion that to think is the highest achievement of mankind, but we neglect the fact that thought untouched by feeling is thin, delusive, treacherous stuff.

You have a responsibility for the way you make the audience feel, and I want them to feel uncomfortable.

These feelings you engender in me, my lord, are most indelicate. You should stop causing them immediately.

I always feel super uncomfortable when it's like ah, there probably has to be a sex scene. I feel really bad and then always look around to see if anyone is watching me while I'm writing. I want to apologize to people who have to read those sex scenes, but I feel like it's part of the characters life, it's important.

In architecture, the demand was no longer for box-like forms, but for buildings that have something to say to the human emotions.

It is music that causes the heart to broaden and the listener to grow cold with ecstasy and fright.

Only when you are moved by a painting should you buy it. Being moved is what collecting is all about.

Architecture is my first love, if you want to talk about what moves me... the ordering of space, the visual pleasure, architecture's power to construct our days and nights.