A 'mistake' is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically is. — John Cage Copy Share Image
My favorite piece [piece of music] is the one we hear all the time if we are quiet. — John Cage Copy Share Image
With just one musician, you can really do an unlimited number of things on the inside of the piano, if you have… — John Cage Copy Share Image
Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of… — 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
Some people take music too seriously, and some don't take it seriously enough, others take it just right. — John Cage Copy Share Image
Let no one imagine that in owning a recording he has the music. The very practice of music is a celebration that… — John Cage Copy Share Image
Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens. — John Cage Copy Share Image
The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences. — John Cage Copy Share Image
When I went to the analyst for a kind of preliminary meeting, he said, 'I'll be able to fix you so that… — John Cage Copy Share Image
So somebody has talent? So what? Dime a dozen. And we're overpopulated. Actually we have more food than we have people and… — John Cage Copy Share Image
The Indians long ago knew that music was going on permanently and that hearing it was like looking out a window at… — John Cage Copy Share Image
For myself and my own experience now, I don't really need any music. I have enough to listen to with just the… — John Cage Copy Share Image
People paying attention to vibratory activity, not in reaction to a fixed ideal performance, but each time attentively to how it happens… — John Cage Copy Share Image
I certainly had no feeling for harmony, and Schoenberg thought that that would make it impossible for me to write music. He… — John Cage Copy Share Image
“nothing is accomplished by writing a piece of music nothing is accomplished by hearing a piece of music nothing is accomplished by… — John Cage Copy Share Image
It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one,… — John Cage Copy Share Image
Percussion music is revolution. Sound and rhythm have too long been submissive to the restrictions of nineteenth century music. Today we are… — John Cage Copy Share Image
What is the purpose of writing music? One is, of course, not dealing with purposes but dealing with sounds. Or the answer… — John Cage Copy Share Image
After I had been studying with him for two years, Schoenberg said, ‘In order to write music, you must have a feeling… — John Cage Copy Share Image
Discord occasions a momentary distress to the ear, which remains unsatisfied, and even uneasy, until it hears something better. I am convinced...that… — John Cage Copy Share Image
I imagine that as contemporary music goes on changing in the way that I'm changing it what will be done is to… — John Cage Copy Share Image
We are living in a period in which many people have changed their mind about what the use of music is or… — John Cage Copy Share Image
When I hear what we call ‘music,’ it seems to me that someone is talking. And talking about his feelings, or about… — John Cage Copy Share Image
“Before leaving the earth altogether, let us as: How does Music stand with respect to its instruments, their pitches, the scales, modes… — John Cage Copy Share Image
The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing. — John Cage Copy Share Image
My favorite piece of music is the one we hear all the time if we are quiet. — John Cage Copy Share Image
I needed another basis for musical structure. This I found in sound's duration parameter, sound's only parameter which is present even when… — John Cage Copy Share Image
When you make music you are acting as a philosopher. You can either do that consciously or you can do it unconsciously,… — John Cage Copy Share Image
Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school? — John Cage Copy Share Image
Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“...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 Image
The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing. — John Cage Copy Share Image
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 Image
Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness. — John Cage Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens. — John Cage Copy Share Image
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 Image
![“My favorite piece [piece of music] is the one we hear all the time if we are quiet.” quote by John Cage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bfc/john-cage-2094_ifs_my-favorite-piece-piece-of-music-is-the_1098264.jpg)
![“It was at Harvard not quite forty years ago that I went into an anechoic [totally silent] chamber not expecting in that silent room to hear two sounds: one high, my nervous system in operation, one low, my blood in circulation. The reason I did not expect to hear those two sounds was that they…” quote by John Cage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/153/john-cage-2094_blood_it-was-at-harvard-not-quite-forty-years_56114.jpg)
