I can't shout out, "Do this." I don't want to be prescriptive. I want to give you facts, and that's the way I've always operated, whether it's a historical fact or a scientific fact, and then you actually have to connect it in your brain. Maya Lin More Quotes by Maya Lin More Quotes From Maya Lin I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me. Maya Lin bad-assbadassart Sometimes I think creativity is magic; it's not a matter of finding an idea, but allowing the idea to find you. Maya Lin creativitywritingart I though about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it. Maya Lin cuttingpainloss A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time. I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as a journey in time. Maya Lin spaceartistjourney Architecture is like a mythical fantastic. It has to be experienced. It can't be described. We can draw it up and we can make models of it, but it can only be experienced as a complete whole. Maya Lin bad-assbadassarchitecture If we forget what used to be, then we’ve lost an ability to really be sensitive to our surroundings. Maya Lin sensitiveusedforget To fly we have to have resistance. Maya Lin encouragementwisdominspirational Our lives are given meaning by our actions-accomplishments made while we are "here" that extend beyond our own time. Maya Lin our-actionsaccomplishmentmade An artist fights to retain the integrity of a work so that it remains a strong, clear vision. Art is and should be the act of an individual willing to say something new, something not quite familiar. Maya Lin strongintegrityart I also wanted remembering the past relevant to the present. Some people wanted me to put the names in alphabetical order. I wanted them in chronological order so that a veteran could find his time within the panel. It's like a thread of life. Maya Lin namesorderpast To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom. Maya Lin dreampositivelife I like to think of my work as creating a private conversation with each person, no matter how public each work is and no matter how many people are present Maya Lin creatingpeoplethinking I saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial not as an object placed into the earth but as a cut in the earth that has then been polished, like a geode. Interest in the land and concern about how we are polluting the air and water of the planet are what make me want to travel back in geologic time-to witness the shaping of the earth before man. Maya Lin cuttinglandmen You have to let the viewers come away with their own conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it. Maya Lin artistlostthinking Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist. Maya Lin tinyartistwant When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business. Maya Lin artistviewswar OK, it was black, it was below grade, I was female, Asian American, young, too young to have served. Yet I think none of the opposition in that sense hurt me. Maya Lin artisthurtthinking If we can't face death, we'll never overcome it. You have to look it straight in the eye. Then you can turn around and walk back out into the light. Maya Lin lighteyeovercoming All my work is much more peaceful than I am. Maya Lin peacefullovepeace Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field. Maya Lin creativitycreativethinking
