Quote

Music is about people for me. It's not about sounds. It's about people it's about putting people into challenging situations. And for me, challenges are opportunities.

John Zorn

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John Zorn
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: September 2
Clarinetist
Composer
Jazz Musician
Musician
Pianist
Record Producer
Saxophonist
New York City
New York
Situation
Sound
Opportunity
Challenging
Music
Situations
People
Opportunities
Sounds
Putting
Challenges

More quotes by John Zorn

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I was always an outsider, proud of being an outsider. I always reveled in the outsiders.
John Zorn
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One thing that I do ask myself when I'm in the creative process is, 'Does the world need this?'
John Zorn
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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
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If you can make art with sound, can't you make music with objects?
John Zorn
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I have no doubts. I know what gets in the way and I know what encourages me to do more work.
John Zorn
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People sometimes have a very hard time accepting change.
John Zorn
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Eye was a great discovery. He is one of the great vocalists of all time.
John Zorn
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We're not on the outside looking in, we're on the outside looking out.
John Zorn
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I have wit in my work and a sense of humor, but I do not use irony in any way
John Zorn
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You know, when we were kids, we had to go to a theater to see a movie. And then television came in and you had to wait until midnight to see the one you wanted to see. Now, all you've got to do is go to a store and buy it and you can watch it whenever you want!
John Zorn
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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
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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
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You can't be idealistic in this world and not be crazy
John Zorn
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Great musicians accept everything that they hear and find something good. They take what they like and they throw away what they don't like
John Zorn
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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
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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
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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
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I'm constantly tortured, and that's why I say happiness is irrelevant. Happiness is for children and yuppies.
John Zorn
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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
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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