Quotes from Oscar Niemeyer

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.

I enter my studio at 9 a.m. I have lunch here, I return right away to my work and I go out to dinner at 8 p.m. My daily tasks vary very much.

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

Surprise is key in all art.

Architecture is my work, and I've spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings.

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

I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.

There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space.

Architecture is invention.

There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space.

Sometimes I lose a whole morning waiting on journalists and other people who look for me. But I always find some time for reading, talking to my friends and feeling what is happening in this world.

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

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

It is not with architecture that one can disseminate any political ideology.

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

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

Architecture is my work, and I've spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings.

Form follows beauty.

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.

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

Não é o ângulo reto que me atrai. Nem a linha reta, dura, inflexível, criada pelo homem. O que me atrai é a curva livre e sensual.

A vida é um sopro.