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Our poetry now is the realization that we possess nothing. Anything therefore is a delight (since we do not posses it) and thus need not fear its loss.
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.
Loss
Poetry
Posses
Since
Posse
Fear
Possess
Anything
Realization
Nothing
Delight
Need
Thus
Needs
Therefore
More quotes by John Cage
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
Some people take music too seriously, and some don't take it seriously enough, others take it just right.
John Cage
Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens.
John Cage
In an utter emptiness anything can take place.
John Cage
We only hear what we listen for.
John Cage
In that case I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall.
John Cage
Out of the work comes the work.
John Cage
It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.
John Cage
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
Composing for the prepared piano is not a criticism of the instrument. I'm only being practical.
John Cage
Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
John Cage
Artists talk a lot about freedom. So, recalling the expression free as a bird, Morton Feldman went to a park one day and spent some time watching our feathered friends. When he came back, he said, You know? They're not free: they're fighting over bits of food.
John Cage
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.
John Cage
My work became an exploration of non-intention.
John Cage
All great art is a form of complaint
John Cage
An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.
John Cage
There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.
John Cage
Art is whatever you can get away with.
John Cage
The attitude I take is that everyday life is more interesting than forms of celebration, when we become aware of it. That when is when our intentions go down to zero. Then suddenly you notice that the world is magical.
John Cage
No one can have an idea once he starts really listening.
John Cage
