Quote

I used to look at composing music as problem solving. But as I get older, it's not about problem solving anymore. There are no solutions, because there are no problems. You just turn the tap and it flows out.

John Zorn

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Zorn
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: September 2
Clarinetist
Composer
Jazz Musician
Musician
Pianist
Record Producer
Saxophonist
New York City
New York
Problem
Anymore
Music
Solutions
Look
Older
Looks
Flow
Problems
Turn
Composing
Turns
Solving
Used
Flows

More quotes by John Zorn

Image
I have not practiced saxophone since 1980. I mean, not one note. I do not pick it up in my house, and that's the end of it.
John Zorn
Image
One thing that I do ask myself when I'm in the creative process is, 'Does the world need this?'
John Zorn
Image
No one sits in front of a drum set and thinks they invented it all out of whole cloth. The fact that the set is there means that you've got some dues to pay to Baby Dodds.
John Zorn
Image
As soon as you get a certain amount of attention, then everybody kinda wants to start taking pot shots at you. All your old friends that supported you don't support you any more.
John Zorn
Image
Classical stuff takes a lot of rehearsal time and preparation, but with stuff that involves improvisation, you can over-rehearse it and it gets stale. You don't want it to be too comfortable. In fact, a good sound check, a good rehearsal usually means a bad performance.
John Zorn
Image
Well, in Japan, I have got a group of musicians that I have worked with a lot, that concentrate just on the hardcore stuff, say, that Naked City has been working on. We have like a repertoire of sixty songs now.
John Zorn
Image
It's a blast to watch. It's a lot more interesting live than it is on record. I mean, it really is a theatrical event. It's a sporting event! Cause you never know what's gonna happen.
John Zorn
Image
I run around, I listen to a lot of music, go to a lot of concerts. And when I see someone that gases me, I try to go out of my way to involve them somehow in what I'm doing or get involved in what they're doing.
John Zorn
Image
I was always an outsider, proud of being an outsider. I always reveled in the outsiders.
John Zorn
Image
I have wit in my work and a sense of humor, but I do not use irony in any way
John Zorn
Image
I have art. I have music. I have the history, this legacy behind me that I can look up to. This is what I believe in. If you want to call it God or spirituality, that's all up to you. Basically I believe in something that's bigger than myself, and that gives my life meaning.
John Zorn
Image
I mean I have had a very combative relationship with critics because I'm very impatient with people that don't give my work the respect I feel it deserves.
John Zorn
Image
If you can make art with sound, can't you make music with objects?
John Zorn
Image
I have no doubts. I know what gets in the way and I know what encourages me to do more work.
John Zorn
Image
That is a lot of the reason I do what I do, to really spread the word and spread information and turn people onto different things they may not be, y'know, aware of. That is what Naked City is certainly about
John Zorn
Image
One of the reasons I started Tzadik, which is my own label, is to keep things in print. I got tired of labels dropping things out of print when they don't sell.
John Zorn
Image
We're not on the outside looking in, we're on the outside looking out.
John Zorn
Image
My solo music - I get up onstage, I improvise and it's my improvisation. When I get up onstage with Fred Frith and Mike Patton, then we're improvising together. Then it's not my music it's our music.
John Zorn
Image
For about seven years. I really like it there. There are a lot of great musicians. The scene is very open. A lot of stuff going on. People's ears are really open, they are not closed. A lot of scenes here, people just get tunnel vision and are into one thing.
John Zorn
Image
People are great. But there's people who you get together with and you talk and you go away feeling energized, you feel inspired. And then there's people who you talk with and you go away feeling horrible, feeling drained, feeling like you're incapable of doing anything. Those people are psychic vampires and I now stay away from them.
John Zorn