Maya Lin

“It is a memorial that is honest about the reality of war. It doesn't make heroes, and it doesn't try to make a political statement.”

“If we forget what used to be, then we've lost an essential part of our future.”

“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.”

“You have to let the viewers come away with their own conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it.”

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

“A lot of my works have been about the tragic events of our history.”

“I'm very much a loner. I don't like parties.”

“An artist struggles to renew his country's vision.”

“You can't really make a deal with a river.”

“Sometimes you have to make a leap of faith.”

“I create places in which to think, without trying to dictate what to think.”

“I think art is a very personal, spiritual thing, and I'm not a very public person.”

“Our lives are composed of different arcs, think of it as a null, a null of arcs; and that's what creates a life.”