John Cage

“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 it is not boring at all.”

“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.”

“The world is teeming; anything can happen.”

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

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

“Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens.”

“I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I'm doing.”

“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.”

“The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.”

“Get yourself out of the way, and let the music speak for itself.”

“The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences.”

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

“Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?”

“My favorite music is the music I haven't yet heard.”

“Everything we do is music.”

“A 'mistake' is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically is.”

“When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking. And talking about his feelings, or about his ideas of relationships. But when I hear traffic... I have the feeling that sound is acting. And I love the activity of sound.”

“As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.”

“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.”

“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.”