John Cage Quotes

Quotes about:

• I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

  John Cage

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  "Conversing with Cage". Book by Richard Kostelanetz, 1988.

  89 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

  John Cage

  Life, Music, Time

  John Cage (2010). “Silence: Lectures and Writings”, p.22, Wesleyan University Press

  91 Copy quote

• Everything you do is music, and everywhere is the best seat.

  John Cage

  Seats

  67 Copy quote

• The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.

  John Cage

  Listening, Facts, Composing

  47 Copy quote

• The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing.

  John Cage

  Silence, Sound, Integrating

  Pierre Boulez, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, John Cage, Robert Samuels (1995). “The Boulez-Cage Correspondence”, p.38, Cambridge University Press

  32 Copy quote

• When you start working, everybody is in your studio- the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas- all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.

  John Cage

  Art, Past, Ideas

  47 Copy quote

• If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

  John Cage

  Inspirational, Music, Eight

  38 Copy quote

• Look at everything. Don't close your eyes to the world around you. Look and become curious and interested in what there is to see.

  John Cage

  Grateful, Eye, Looks

  33 Copy quote

• The world is no longer a romantic place; some of its people still are however, and therein lies the promise. Don't let the world win.

  John Cage

  Dream, Lying, Winning

  44 Copy quote

• If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.

  John Cage

  Moving, Accepted, Ifs

  1 Copy quote

• Get yourself out of whatever cage you find yourself in.

  John Cage

  Finding Yourself, Cages

  17 Copy quote

• Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and desires out of its way and lets it act of it's own accord.

  John Cage

  Order, Mind, Desire

  John Cage (2010). “Silence: Lectures and Writings”, p.109, Wesleyan University Press

  51 Copy quote

• My favorite piece [piece of music] is the one we hear all the time if we are quiet.

  John Cage

  Pieces, Quiet, My Favorite

  "John Cage".

  34 Copy quote

• Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.

  John Cage

  Music, Peace, Noise

  John Cage (2010). “Silence: Lectures and Writings”, p.17, Wesleyan University Press

  2 Copy quote

• I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

  John Cage

  "Lecture on Nothing" (1961)

  37 Copy quote

• Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.

  John Cage

  Ideas, Happens, One Thing

  11 Copy quote

• If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.

  John Cage

  Music, Cutting, Ego

  24 Copy quote

• The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

  John Cage

  Beauty, Beautiful, Reality

  "Happy Birthday, John Cage! Celebrate What Would Be The Composer’s 101st With His Little-Seen Visual Art" by Kate Abbey-Lambertz, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 5, 2013.

  12 Copy quote

• Art is whatever you can get away with.

  John Cage

  Art, Get Away, Art Is

  7 Copy quote

• Every something is an echo of nothing

  John Cage

  Echoes

  John Cage (2011). “Silence: Lectures and Writings, 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.12, Wesleyan University Press

  4 Copy quote

• My favorite music is the music I haven't yet heard

  John Cage

  My Favorite, Music Is, Heard

  8 Copy quote

• I like being moved. I don't like being pushed.

  John Cage

  Interesting, Moved

  3 Copy quote

• My favourite music is the music I haven't yet heard. I don't hear the music I write: I write in order to hear the music I haven't yet heard.

  John Cage

  Writing, Order, Favourite

  4 Copy quote

• Music is a means of rapid transportation.

  John Cage

  Music, Mean, Rapids

  John Cage (2010). “Silence: Lectures and Writings”, p.59, Wesleyan University Press

  6 Copy quote

• We need not destroy the past. It is gone.

  John Cage

  Music, Past, Needs

  John Cage (2011). “Silence: Lectures and Writings, 50th Anniversary Edition”, Wesleyan University Press

  29 Copy quote

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