No one will understand a Japanese garden until you've walked through one, and you hear the crunch underfoot, and you smell it, and you experience it over time. Now there's no photograph or any movie that can give you that experience.

- J. Carter Brown

I found that it wasn't so oddball to like music and poetry and visual arts, they're kindred spirits.

- J. Carter Brown

There's no point breaking a lot of crockery unnecessarily.

- J. Carter Brown

Do what you really want to do. That's why God put you on this earth.

- J. Carter Brown

I am deeply aware of the dimension of luck. It's so important to be prepared to receive it, but it is a major factor. There's no question.

- J. Carter Brown

There are more ways of skinning a cat than rubbing its fur the wrong way.

- J. Carter Brown

I think everybody has a bent, and the key is to follow that bent. So much human wastage comes from people who are doing things with their lives that they really aren't happy with.

- J. Carter Brown

The Washingtonian said it shouldn't be built. The gallery's East Building is now considered a triumph, and members of the American Association of Architects have voted it one of the best buildings of all time.

- J. Carter Brown