Maya Lin

“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.”

“I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It's what you learn, what you think. That's all that counts.”

“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.”

“The process I go through in the art and the architecture, I actually want it to be almost childlike. Sometimes I think it's magical.”

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

“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.”

“I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.”

“Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture.”

“I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”