Quote

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

John Cage

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Cage
Age: 79 †
Born: 1912
Born: September 5
Died: 1992
Died: August 2
Composer
Illustrator
Music Theorist
Musician
Musicologist
Painter
Philosopher
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
LA
California
John Milton Cage Jr.
John Milton Cage
Jr.
John Milton
Jr. Cage
J. C.
Poetry
Realize
Realizing
Nothing
Poetic
Possess
Soon

More quotes by John Cage

Image
It's useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.
John Cage
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. We've gotten to the point of burning food. When will we begin to burn our art?
John Cage
Image
No one can have an idea once he starts really listening.
John Cage
Image
...we make our lives by what we love.
John Cage
Image
The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing.
John Cage
Image
If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.
John Cage
Image
Whether I make them or not, there are always sounds to be heard and all of them are excellent.
John Cage
Image
Music is edifying, for from time to time it sets the soul in operation.
John Cage
Image
Now that we have everything we need, we discover that there is almost nothing that we have that we want
John Cage
Image
We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life.
John Cage
Image
In an utter emptiness anything can take place.
John Cage
Image
My work became an exploration of non-intention.
John Cage
Image
Out of the work comes the work.
John Cage
Image
Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
John Cage
Image
Try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.
John Cage
Image
Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
John Cage
Image
Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
John Cage
Image
One day when I was studying with Schoenberg, he pointed out the eraser on his pencil and said, 'This end is more important than the other.' After twenty years I learned to write directly in ink.
John Cage
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 it is not boring at all.
John Cage
Image
As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
John Cage