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It's useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.
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.
Lullabies
Lullaby
Useless
Sleep
Cannot
Play
More quotes by John Cage
Each something is a celebration of the nothing that supports it.
John Cage
The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences.
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
As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
John Cage
Some people take music too seriously, and some don't take it seriously enough, others take it just right.
John Cage
What right do I have to be in the woods, if the woods are not in me.
John Cage
If this word music is sacred and reserved for eighteenth and nineteenth century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound.
John Cage
We only hear what we listen for.
John Cage
The responsibility of the artist consists in perfecting his work so that it may become attractively disinteresting.
John Cage
Now that we have everything we need, we discover that there is almost nothing that we have that we want
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
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
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
We need not destroy the past. It is gone.
John Cage
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.
John Cage
Our business in living is to become fluent with the life we are living, and art can help this.
John Cage
The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing.
John Cage
When you make music you are acting as a philosopher. You can either do that consciously or you can do it unconsciously, but you're doing it.
John Cage
Each moment presents what happens.
John Cage
For myself and my own experience now, I don't really need any music. I have enough to listen to with just the sounds of the environment. I listen to the sounds of 6th avenue.
John Cage
