Maya Lin quotes

Maya Lin, an American artist and designer, rose to prominence with her iconic design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Born in Athens, Ohio, Lin's architectural masterpiece has become a symbol of healing and remembrance. Her work extends beyond this renowned memorial, encompassing sculpture, land art, and environmental installations. Recognized for her unique vision, Lin has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious National Medal of Arts. With an unwavering commitment to sustainability and artistic excellence, Maya Lin continues to inspire and challenge artistic norms, leaving an indelible mark on the world of art and design. Explore more about Maya Lin's groundbreaking works and her innovative approach to art.

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

Our parents decided not to teach us Chinese. It was an era when they felt we would be better off if we didn't have that complication.

- Maya Lin

The definition of a modern approach to war is the acknowledgement of individual lives lost.

- Maya Lin

Some artists want to confront. Some want to invoke thought. They're all necessary and they're all valid.

- Maya Lin

You couldn't put me in a social group setting. I'm probably a terrible anarchist deep down.

- Maya Lin

I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher, she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up.

- Maya Lin

To fly we have to have resistance.

- Maya Lin

I left science, then I went into art, but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them.

- Maya Lin

The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn't about money. It was about teaching, or learning.

- Maya Lin

My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar.

- Maya Lin

It was a requirement by the veterans to list the 57,000 names. We're reaching a time that we'll acknowledge the individual in a war on a national level.

- Maya Lin

In art or architecture your project is only done when you say it's done. If you want to rip it apart at the eleventh hour and start all over again, you never finish. I was one of those crazy creatures.

- Maya Lin

I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s, and into my 30s, I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character.

- Maya Lin

It terrified me to have an idea that was solely mine to be no longer a part of my mind, but totally public.

- Maya Lin

I was always making things. Even though art was what I did every day, it didn't even occur to me that I would be an artist.

- Maya Lin

I didn't have anyone to play with so I made up my own world.

- Maya Lin

Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn't occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice.

- Maya Lin

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

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

I was probably the first kid in my high school to go to Yale. I applied almost as a lark. Then, when I got there, I was the dumbest person in your class.

- Maya Lin

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

I had very few friends. We always ate dinner with our parents. We didn't want to go out. American adolescence was a lot wilder than I would have felt comfortable with.

- Maya Lin

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

My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions.

- Maya Lin

Every memorial in its time has a different goal.

- Maya Lin

It's only in hindsight that you realize what indeed your childhood was really like.

- Maya Lin

I loved school. I studied like crazy. I was a Class A nerd.

- Maya Lin

My goal is to strip things down so that you need just the right amount of words or shape to convey what you need to convey. I like editing. I like it very tight.

- Maya Lin

I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.

- Maya Lin

We were unusually brought up; there was no gender differentiation. I was never thought of as any less than my brother.

- Maya Lin