Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Time
Sound
Bags
Reason
Sounds
Play
Essential
Whole
Essentials
Many
Havens
Trying
Angry
Work
Haven
Things
Maybe
Sorted

More quotes by John Coltrane

Image
Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.
John Coltrane
Image
Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
John Coltrane
Image
God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.
John Coltrane
Image
Considering the great heritage in music that we have - the work of the giants of the past, the present, and the promise of those who are to come - I feel that we have every reason to face the future optimistically.
John Coltrane
Image
Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
John Coltrane
Image
The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.
John Coltrane
Image
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
Image
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
Image
All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.
John Coltrane
Image
Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
John Coltrane
Image
I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.
John Coltrane
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I'm into scales right now.
John Coltrane
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
...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
Image
Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
John Coltrane