Cecil Taylor Quotes
- To feel is perhaps the most terrifying thing in this society.
- I try to imitate on the piano the leaps in space a dancer makes.
- I understand about the relative strengths of people, and I don't think people have to be anything. They can be nothin' if they want to…
- If you take the creation of music and the creation of your own life values as your overall goal, then living becomes a musical process.
- Rhythm is the life of space of time danced through.
- To me, the piano in itself is an orchestra.
- Sometimes when it goes really well, you wonder, who's that at the piano?
- The quality of life, values that go down to doin' that, that's the issue.
- In short, [Coltrane's] tone is beautiful because it is functional. In other words, it is always involved in saying something. You can't separate the means…
- Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.
- Doesn't that fool know I recorded that song because I like it?
- I discovered very early that it wasn't quite enough for me to imitate people.
- You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you're really interested in it.