John Cage Quotes

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

We need not destroy the past. It is gone.

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

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.

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.

The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all.

This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.

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.

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego.

You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.

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