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The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is 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.
Silence
Sound
Music
Integrating
Composing
Material
Materials

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In the dark, all cats are black.
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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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The world is teeming anything can happen.
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Whether I make them or not, there are always sounds to be heard and all of them are excellent.
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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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Each moment presents what happens.
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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.
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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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Art is whatever you can get away with.
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Let no one imagine that in owning a recording he has the music. The very practice of music is a celebration that we own nothing.
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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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Music is a means of rapid transportation.
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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?
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There will always be critics eager to fashion opinions for the lazy and incapable.
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An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.
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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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Paper should be edible, nutritious. Inks used for printing or writing should have delicious flavors. Magazines or newspapers read at breakfast should be eaten for lunch. Instead of throwing one's mail in the waste-basket, it should be saved for the dinner guests.
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Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.
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As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
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My work became an exploration of non-intention.
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