Oscar Niemeyer

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

Form follows beauty.

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

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.

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.

Architecture is invention.

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

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

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

Curves are the essence of my work because they are the essence of Brazil, pure and simple.

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

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