Famous Frank Lloyd Wright Quotes

Wright is an interesting study of a superstar architect having both right and wrong influence. “All Architecture, worthy the name,” he decreed in 1910, “will, henceforward, more and more be organic.”12 So inspired by Viollet-le-Duc and Louis Sullivan, he inspired countless others (including young me) toward an organic approach to architecture. At the same time, the very pomposity of his decrees helped inflame a fatal egotism in generations of architects, and his most famous buildings belie his organic ideal. They were so totally designed—down to the screwheads all being aligned horizontally to match his prairie line—that they cannot be changed. To live in one of his houses is to be the curator of a Frank Lloyd Wright museum;

One famous (and perhaps apocryphal) story tells of how he, while testifying in court, was asked by an official to identify himself. Wright responded by declaring that he was the greatest architect in the world. His response, when asked how he could make such a statement, was that he had no choice – he was under oath.

The Century was a high-speed luxury train, used by the rich and famous traveling between Chicago and New York. Sportscaster Bob Elson set up a microphone in Chicago’s LaSalle Street Station and tried to intercept well-knowns for spontaneous interviews. Among the celebrities who appeared were Rita Hayworth and Eleanor Roosevelt, but architect Frank Lloyd Wright brushed briskly past. When Elson said he loved Wright’s work, Wright replied, “In that case, young man, I’ve done enough for you already.” The show was alive with terminal noise, with trains hissing and chugging and tooting. Train buffs complained that the Century was dieselpowered, but the producers thought the old sounds were more romantic, so the sound effects records remained, at least into the late ’40s.