John Cage Quotes

"When we separate music from life we get art."
- John Cage
(Related: Art, Life, Music)

"We need not destroy the past. It is gone."
- John Cage
(Related: Past)

"We carry our homes within us which enables us to fly."
- John Cage

"We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life."
- John Cage
(Related: Business, Life, Understanding)

"There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing."
- John Cage
(Related: Poetry, 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."
- John Cage
(Related: Time, Fact, May, Silence, Space)

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
- John Cage
(Related: People, Ideas, Old)

"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."
- John Cage
(Related: First, Question, 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.""
- John Cage
(Related: Music, Entertainment)

"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."
- John Cage

"Ideas are one thing and what happens is another."
- John Cage
(Related: Ideas)

"I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry."
- John Cage
(Related: Poetry, Nothing, Saying)

"The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation."
- John Cage
(Related: Nature, Purpose)