The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing. — John Cage Copy Share Image
Composing for the prepared piano is not a criticism of the instrument. I'm only being practical. — John Cage Copy Share Image
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… — John Cage Copy Share
It was at Harvard not quite forty years ago that I went into an anechoic [totally silent] chamber not expecting in that silent room… — John Cage Copy Share
So somebody has talent? So what? Dime a dozen. And we're overpopulated. Actually we have more food than we have people and more art.… — John Cage Copy Share
“...the important questions are answered by not liking only but disliking and accepting equally what one likes and dislikes. Otherwise there is no access… — John Cage Copy Share
To see, one must go beyond the imiagination and for that one must stand absolutely still as though at the center of a leap. — John Cage Copy Share
Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness. — John Cage Copy Share
Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake… — John Cage Copy Share
There are some good people in it, but the orchestra as a whole is equivalent to a gang bent on destruction. — John Cage Copy Share
Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens. — John Cage Copy Share
People who aren't artists often feel that artists are inspired. But if you work at your art you don't have time to be inspired. — John Cage Copy Share
Not one sound fears the silence that extinguishes it. And no silence exists that is not pregnant with sound. — John Cage Copy Share
