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We only hear what we listen for.

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.
Listen
Hear

More quotes by John Cage

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In the nature of the use of chance operations is the belief that all answers answer all questions.
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All great art is a form of complaint
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All God's religions ... have not been able to put mankind back together again.
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As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
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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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There will always be critics eager to fashion opinions for the lazy and incapable.
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...we make our lives by what we love.
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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
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Music is edifying, for from time to time it sets the soul in operation.
John Cage
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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.
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Our business in living is to become fluent with the life we are living, and art can help this.
John Cage
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As McLuhan says, everything happens at once.
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The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing.
John Cage
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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?
John Cage
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My work became an exploration of non-intention.
John Cage
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Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
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.
John Cage
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Some people take music too seriously, and some don't take it seriously enough, others take it just right.
John Cage
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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.
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