Even the West has known the ...

Even the West has known the architecture of empty space, whose object, for thousands of years, has been less to construct divine houses, than to create sacred places, to seize upon mystery and to immerse man in it-whether by raising the cyclopean pedestal that surrounds him with stars, or by hollowing out the sanctuary that wraps him in haunted night.
 Andre Malraux

Quotes from the same author

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.
 AndrĂ© Malraux
In art, we are the first heirs of all the earth. . . . Accidents impair and Time transforms, but it is we who choose.
 Andre Malraux
A break in the established order is never the work of chance. It is the outcome of a man's resolve to turn life to account.
 Andre Malraux
History may clarify our understanding of the supreme work of art, but can never account for it completely; for the Time of art is not the same as the Time of history.
 Andre Malraux
The thrill of creation which we experience which we experience when we see a masterpiece is not unlike the feeling of the artist who created it; such a work is a fragment of the world which he has annexed and which belongs to him alone.
 Andre Malraux