Zaha Hadid quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Zaha Hadid on Wise Famous Quotes.

I am eccentric, I admit it, but I am not a nutcase.

I think about architecture all the time. That's the problem. But I've always been like that. I dream it sometimes.

I'm into fashion because it contains the mood of the day, of the moment - like music, literature, and art.

I like music. Country, hip-hop, R&B, sometimes classical.

Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.

People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.

I'm a pushover. I make allowances for people if I like them.

I was always unusual-looking; I wouldn't say beautiful.

I always thought I was powerful, since I was a kid.

When I was growing up in Iraq, there was an unbroken belief in progress and a great sense of optimism. It was a moment of nation building.

It's very important that historic cities are allowed to reinvent their future.

In Iraq, many of my female friends were architects and professionals with a lot of power during the 1980s while all the men were at war in Iran.

You really have to have a goal. The goal posts might shift, but you should have a goal. Know what it is you want to find out.

For a woman to go out alone into architecture is still very, very hard. It's still a man's world.

I am quite sensitive to politics, because you know, as an Arab, an Iraqi, all your life, you are very conscious of it.

The funkiest housing in Holland is for low-income, and I think that's very nice.

I really love Miami, but I don't think the architecture matches the city. It's a bit too commercial.

Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.

My friendships are very important to me.

When I taught, all my best students were women.

Like men, women have to be diligent and work hard.

My father was a politician, and a very important politician, and one of the leaders of the Iraqi Democratic Party, who believed in progress.

There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?

The paintings have only ever been ways of exploring architecture. I don't see them as art.

Obviously for some people there is a big connection between music and the way you can create a space.

When I first came to Guangzhou in 1981, it seemed such a hard and dour place with everyone in Chairman Mao uniforms.

Life in the Middle East is quite different from other places.

As a woman, you're not accessible to every world.

I think that in life you don't need too much; you need friends, you need to do what you like doing.

I loved London. In the 1970s ... it was very exciting, really wild.

What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.

I will never give myself the luxury of thinking, 'I've made it.'

It's not my duty as an architect to look at it

Architecture is like writing. You have to edit it over and over so it looks effortless

I think it's good if areas get upgraded and gentrified, as long as the people who always lived there can stay. But they get pushed out to some place.

There are so many great galleries and museums in London, but they can be very crowded during the day.

I am equally proud of all of my architectural projects. It's always rewarding to see an ambitious design become reality.

Men think a woman should not have an opinion.

I can't focus when there's too many things around. Whenever I used to go to the office, I used to always say, 'Tidy up.'

No. I don't have the patience, and I'm not very tactful. People say I can be frightening.

I don't think that everybody in the planet should have a child. I've never had the desire I should have a kid.

My father was a socialist, so he would have thought that I shouldn't be a dame.

My generation were all careerists.

In hospital, people should be able to have time to themselves.

I really believe in the idea of the future.

Yes, I'm a feminist, because I see all women as smart, gifted and tough.

People in power, they're so used to people kind of playing up to them.

I don't particularly like showing furniture on pedestals, but for whatever reasons you always have to in museums.

Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.

For many years, I hated nature. As a student, I refused to put a plant anywhere - a living plant, that is. Dead plants were OK.

Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?

You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.

What's nice about concrete is that it looks unfinished.

I am sure that as a woman I can do a very good skyscraper.

I find industrial cities exciting. I like their toughness.

I made a decision when I was in school that I'd have a lot of male friends.

I have always appreciated those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions.

The beauty of the landscape - where sand, water, reeds, birds, buildings, and people all somehow flowed together - has never left me.

The spirit of adventure to embrace the new and the incredible belief in the power of invention attracted me to the Russian avant-garde.

Education, housing and hospitals are the most important things for society.

My buildings are not particularly expensive. It is not a tin shed. If you want a tinny car, you pay for that.

I love driving around east London - it's always full of surprises. Actually, I don't drive myself - I like to be driven.

All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.

People say I design architectural icons. If I design a building and it becomes an icon, that's ok.

I will always have two regrets. I don't have a presence in London, and I would have liked to have done more work in the Middle East.

Half of architecture students are women, and you see respected, established female architects all the time.