Author

The essence of architecture is form and space, and light is the essential element to the key to architectural design, probably more important than anything. Technology and materials are secondary.

From I. M. Pei

We had a lot of difficulty in getting the French to accept the pyramid. They thought we were trying to import a piece of Egypt until I pointed out that their obelisk was also from Egypt and the Place des Pyramides is around the corner. Then they accepted it. The pyramid at the Louvre, though, is just the tip.

From I. M. Pei

I arrived in the U.S.A. in 1935, to San Francisco. I got the boat from China, and I didn't even speak English. I could read a little, perhaps write a little, but that was all. It was a 17-day journey, and I learnt to speak English from the stewards.

From I. M. Pei

I came, I studied architecture in America, so my technical background's completely western. But my seventeen years, the formative years of one's life, and I can't say that the Chineseness in me is not there.

From I. M. Pei

A lasting architecture has to have roots.

From I. M. Pei

Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history, but it's not very deep.

From I. M. Pei

It is good to learn from the ancients. I'm a bit of an ancient myself. They had a lot of time to think about architecture and landscape.

From I. M. Pei

I liked the America of Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton - it was all a dream, of course, but a very alluring dream for a young man from Canton.

From I. M. Pei

Modern architecture needed to be part of an evolutionary, not a revolutionary, process.

From I. M. Pei

The first decent building I did with my own practice was a chapel in Taiwan.

From I. M. Pei

I. M. Pei

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