John Cage Quotes

A meal without mushrooms is like a day without rain.

There’s no such thing as silence. Something is always happening that makes a sound.

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.

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

It’s useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.

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.

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.

Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.

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

My favorite music is the music I haven’t yet heard

We need not destroy the past. It is gone.

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.

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

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.

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.

I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

We carry our homes within us which enables us to fly.

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

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

I like being moved. I don’t like being pushed.

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.

Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.

We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life.

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