John Fahey

“My life has been a search for the sacred.”

“I was trying to make a guitar sound like a full orchestra.”

“The whole point of what I am doing is to be unmarketable.”

“I am not a folk musician. I am a composer who plays the guitar.”

“The guitar is a small orchestra. It is polyphonic. Every string is a different color, a different voice.”

“Blues is not a style of music. It's a feeling.”

“I always thought of myself as a painter who paints with sound.”

“To me, the music is a spiritual search.”

“The function of the artist is to invent, not to replicate.”

“All my songs are prayers.”

“I'm looking for a sound that has never been heard before.”

“I don't play chords, I play notes.”

“Most of the music I like is close to the folk tradition, but it's not the folk tradition.”