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I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing . . . the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood.

John Coltrane

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John Coltrane
Age: 40 †
Born: 1926
Born: September 23
Died: 1967
Died: July 17
Bandleader
Composer
Conductor
Jazz Musician
Musician
Saxophonist
Hamlet
North Carolina
Trane
John William Coltrane
St. John Will-I-Am Coltrane
Long
Feeling
Reaction
Never
Whether
Reactions
Understand
Jazz
Feelings
Matters
Thought
Communication
Music
Necessary
Matter
Understood
Even
Emotional

More quotes by John Coltrane

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There is never any end... There are always new sounds to imagine new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state.
John Coltrane
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Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
John Coltrane
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...That is one of the main causes of this arrogance: the idea of power. Then you lose your true power which is to be part of all, and the only way you can be part of all is to understand it. And when you don't understand, you have to go humbly to it. You don't go to school and say, 'I know what you're going to teach me'.
John Coltrane
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I've always felt that even though a man was not a Christian, he still has to know the truth some way or another. Or if he was a Christian, he could know the truth. The truth itself doesn't have any name on it to me. And each man has to find this for himself, I think.
John Coltrane
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The reason I play so many sounds, maybe it sounds angry, is because I'm trying so many things at one time, you see? I haven't sorted them out. I have a whole bag of things that I'm trying to work through and get the one essential.
John Coltrane
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I'd like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.
John Coltrane
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If you're bourgeois, money is it. It's all the questions and all the answers. Ain't no E-flat or color blue, only $12.98 or $1,000. If it isn't money, it isn't nothing.
John Coltrane
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Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
John Coltrane
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Change is inevitable in music - things change.
John Coltrane
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All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
John Coltrane
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Whatever I'd say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was one of the greatest people I've ever known, as a man, a friend, and a musician.
John Coltrane
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Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
John Coltrane
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I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.
John Coltrane
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I want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know there are bad forces. You know, I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.
John Coltrane
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God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.
John Coltrane
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Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
John Coltrane
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All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.
John Coltrane
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My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups...I want to speak to their souls.
John Coltrane
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My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being.
John Coltrane
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I'm into scales right now.
John Coltrane