60+ John Cage quotes

It’s useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.

When we separate music from life we get art.

We need not destroy the past. It is gone.

We carry our homes within us which enables us to fly.

We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life.

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.

The first question I ask myself when something doesn’t seem to be beautiful is why do I think it’s not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of “culture.”

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.

I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.

The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.