Quote

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

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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.
Become
Suddenly
Take
Intention
Life
Forms
World
Aware
Intentions
Everyday
Magical
Attitude
Celebration
Interesting
Zero
Form
Notice

More quotes by John Cage

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People paying attention to vibratory activity, not in reaction to a fixed ideal performance, but each time attentively to how it happens to be this time, not necessarily two times the same. A music that transports the listener to the moment where he is.
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The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences.
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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.
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Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
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If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.
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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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There was a German philosopher who is very well known, his name was Immanuel Kant, and he said there are two things that don’t have to mean anything, one is music and the other is laughter. Don’t have to mean anything that is, in order to give us deep pleasure.
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We need not destroy the past. It is gone.
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Beware of losing what isn't in your head.
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All great art is a form of complaint
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The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.
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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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We're breaking all of the rules, even our own rules, and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.
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My work became an exploration of non-intention.
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Out of the work comes the work.
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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.
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An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.
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There will always be critics eager to fashion opinions for the lazy and incapable.
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As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
John Cage
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Whether I make them or not, there are always sounds to be heard and all of them are excellent.
John Cage