Norman Foster Quotes

Everything inspires me; sometimes I think I see things others don’t.

It takes a lot of effort to make a building look effortless.

If you weren’t an optimist, it would be impossible to be an architect.

Architecture is an expression of values.

Since Stonehenge, architects have always been at the cutting edge of technology. And you cant separate technology from the humanistic and spiritual content of a building.

The pencil and computer are, if left to their own devices, equally dumb and only as good as the person driving them.

You cannot separate the buildings out from the infrastructure of cites and the mobility of transit.

I'm not a creature of habit. I like to find things from unexpected sources.

Our object in life should be to accumulate a great number of grand questions to be asked and resolved in eternity.

I am always surprised by how much little emphasis schools of architecture, and indeed, many architects, place on the process of the mating of a building.

I think you never stop learning.

Every time I've flown an aircraft, or visited a steelworks, or watched a panel-beater at work, I've learned something new that can be applied to buildings.

I was born in 1935, and as far back as I can remember, I was sketching designs. My first subject was an aircraft, which I imagined myself piloting.

I would never wear anything with a logo. That I really find difficult. It's a frustration that I'll find a nice shirt or something and it's got 50 prints of the logo on it - why do they do this?

I tend to move between turtlenecks and shirts and ties. I don't really have a uniform in the sense that some people might.

Google has already tested robot cars in San Francisco. If they can navigate San Francisco, they can probably manage just about anywhere.

I think cars encapsulate the history of innovation and style - it's the other side of the coin of the car being public enemy No.1.

Since Stonehenge, architects have always been at the cutting edge of technology. And you can't separate technology from the humanistic and spiritual content of a building.

I describe the design process as like the tip of the iceberg. What you don't see is the long haul: all the endless auditing and things like that.

Everything we design is a response to the specific climate and culture of a particular place.

As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.