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The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.
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.
Composing
Listening
Fact
Facts
More quotes by John Cage
Some people take music too seriously, and some don't take it seriously enough, others take it just right.
John Cage
Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and desires out of its way and lets it act of it's own accord.
John Cage
There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.
John Cage
Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music.
John Cage
My favorite music is the music I haven't yet heard
John Cage
If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.
John Cage
As McLuhan says, everything happens at once.
John Cage
When we separate music from life we get is art.
John Cage
Food, one assumes, provides nourishment but Americans eat it fully aware that small amounts of poison have been added to improve its appearance and delay its putrefaction.
John Cage
Beware of losing what isn't in your head.
John Cage
The grand thing about the human mind is that it can turn its own tables and see meaninglessness as ultimate meaning.
John Cage
What right do I have to be in the woods, if the woods are not in me.
John Cage
The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences.
John Cage
The responsibility of the artist consists in perfecting his work so that it may become attractively disinteresting.
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
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.
John Cage
Music is edifying, for from time to time it sets the soul in operation.
John Cage
To accept whatever comes, regardless of the consequences, is to be unafraid.
John Cage
There will always be critics eager to fashion opinions for the lazy and incapable.
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
