John Zorn Quotes

Quotes about:

• I run around, I listen to a lot of music, go to a lot of concerts. And when I see someone that gases me, I try to go out of my way to involve them somehow in what I'm doing or get involved in what they're doing.

  John Zorn

  Music, Running, Trying

  46 Copy quote

• We're not on the outside looking in, we're on the outside looking out.

  John Zorn

  Outside Looking In

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• Great musicians accept everything that they hear and find something good. They take what they like and they throw away what they don't like

  John Zorn

  Musician, Great Music, Accepting

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• I’m constantly in doubt about what I’m doing, I’m constantly tortured, and that’s why I say happiness is irrelevant. Happiness is for children and yuppies. I’m not striving for happiness, I’m trying to get some work done. And sometimes the best work is done under doubt. Constant rethinking, and reevaluating what you’re doing, working and working until you feel it’s finished. And that’s an interesting point too, that you’ve got to know when to stop. Sometimes there’s a magical moment when everything comes together.

  John Zorn

  Children, Yuppies, Interesting

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• I see myself and many artists like me as the torchbearers through these dark ages.

  John Zorn

  Dark, Artist, Age

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• If you can make art with sound, can't you make music with objects?

  John Zorn

  Art, Sound, Objects

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• Music is about people for me. It's not about sounds. It's about people; it's about putting people into challenging situations. And for me, challenges are opportunities.

  John Zorn

  Opportunity, People, Challenges

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wbaa.org. September 3, 2013.

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• I have a very beautiful life with great friends and I look forward to waking up every day. Every day is a vacation but every day is a workday. I don't want to take vacations because music is my life and if I escape from music, that's the same thing as death. So a vacation is death to me. Sitting on the beach for a week is my idea of hell. That would kill me.

  John Zorn

  Beautiful, Beach, Vacation

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 3, 2013.

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• People are great. But there's people who you get together with and you talk and you go away feeling energized, you feel inspired. And then there's people who you talk with and you go away feeling horrible, feeling drained, feeling like you're incapable of doing anything. Those people are psychic vampires and I now stay away from them.

  John Zorn

  Psychics, People, Feelings

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wbaa.org. September 3, 2013.

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• It's a matter of keeping people on a spontaneous edge.

  John Zorn

  People, Matter, Spontaneity

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• I was always an outsider, proud of being an outsider. I always reveled in the outsiders.

  John Zorn

  Proud, Outsiders

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wbaa.org. September 3, 2013.

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• One thing that I do ask myself when I'm in the creative process is, 'Does the world need this?'

  John Zorn

  Creative, Doe, Needs

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". Interview with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 3, 2013.

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• I feel like there are messages. I feel like there are angels. I feel that there is a legacy and an energy. And I feel that it's possible to tap into that.

  John Zorn

  Angel, Energy, Legacy

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 3, 2013.

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• I have art. I have music. I have the history, this legacy behind me that I can look up to. This is what I believe in. If you want to call it God or spirituality, that's all up to you. Basically I believe in something that's bigger than myself, and that gives my life meaning.

  John Zorn

  Art, Believe, Giving

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wbaa.org. September 3, 2013.

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• When I'm writing, sometimes it gets to that place where I feel like the piece is writing itself and I'm trying not to get in the way

  John Zorn

  Writing, Trying, Way

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• You need to believe in something that's bigger than yourself. I think that's what everybody wants to believe in that.

  John Zorn

  Believe, Thinking, Needs

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 3, 2013.

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• I'm constantly tortured, and that's why I say happiness is irrelevant. Happiness is for children and yuppies.

  John Zorn

  Children, Yuppies, Irrelevant

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• I used to look at composing music as problem solving. But as I get older, it's not about problem solving anymore. There are no solutions, because there are no problems. You just turn the tap and it flows out.

  John Zorn

  Looks, Flow, Problem

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• The magic that you find in surf music, I think, is really timeless. You know, when I was very young, I was in a surf band. Surf music is an instrumental music that still means a lot to me, not in an nostalgic way, but as something that really gets to the heart of the guitar itself.

  John Zorn

  Heart, Mean, Thinking

  "'Masada Songbook': Zorn Redefines Jewish Music". "Weekend Edition Sunday" with Liane Hansen, www.npr.org. November 13, 2005.

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• I don't ascribe to the idea of the ivory tower composer who sits alone in a room composing his masterpieces and then comes down from Mount Sinai with the tablets. It doesn't work like that. The job of a composer is putting something down on a piece of paper that will inspire the person who's playing.

  John Zorn

  Jobs, Ivory Tower, Ideas

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• Discipline is important as long as you're having a good time. What I always did was I did what I enjoyed, and I think that's why I don't have any grey hairs.

  John Zorn

  Thinking, Hair, Discipline

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 3, 2013.

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• The idealists will always be in society, and we will survive

  John Zorn

  Idealist

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• I have no doubts. I know what gets in the way and I know what encourages me to do more work.

  John Zorn

  Doubt, Way, Knows

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wbaa.org. September 3, 2013.

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• I mean I have had a very combative relationship with critics because I'm very impatient with people that don't give my work the respect I feel it deserves.

  John Zorn

  People, Giving, Impatient

  "At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 3, 2013.

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• People sometimes have a very hard time accepting change.

  John Zorn

  Hard Times, People, Sometimes

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