The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences. — John Cage Copy Share Image
My favourite music is the music I haven't yet heard. I don't hear the music I write: I write in order to… — 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
If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that… — John Cage Copy Share Image
Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school? Are the people inside… — 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
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
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
