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It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

John Cage

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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.
Irritating
Somewhere
Else
Would
Think
Thinking
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Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
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As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
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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.
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What I'm proposing, to myself and other people, is what I often call the tourist attitude - that you act as though you've never been there before. So that you're not supposed to know anything about it. If you really get down to brass tacks, we have never been anywhere before.
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The function of Art is to imitate Nature in her manner of operation. Our understanding of her manner of operation&Rdquo changes according to advances in the sciences.
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The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.
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No one can have an idea once he starts really listening.
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Now that we have everything we need, we discover that there is almost nothing that we have that we want
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All God's religions ... have not been able to put mankind back together again.
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Music is a means of rapid transportation.
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Composing for the prepared piano is not a criticism of the instrument. I'm only being practical.
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What right do I have to be in the woods, if the woods are not in me.
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There are some good people in it, but the orchestra as a whole is equivalent to a gang bent on destruction.
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In the dark, all cats are black.
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I don't need sound to talk to me.
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Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
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It's useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.
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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.
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Guy Nearing told us it's a good idea when hunting mushrooms to have a pleasant goal, a waterfall for instance, and, having reached it, to return another way. When, however, we're obliged to go and come back by the same path, returning we notice mushrooms we hadn't noticed going out.
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Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens.
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