Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens. John Cage More Quotes by John Cage More Quotes From John Cage The white paintings came first; my silent piece came later. John Cage pieces white firsts Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes. John Cage different process trying There are some good people in it, but the orchestra as a whole is equivalent John Cage gang orchestra people All God's religions ... have not been able to put mankind back together again. John Cage together-again able religion Try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. John Cage sound-and-music silence trying One need not fear for the future of music. John Cage needs The truth is that everything causes everything else. We do not speak therefore of one thing causing another. There are no secrets. It's just we thought they said dead when they said bread. John Cage justice food death Let no one imagine that in owning a recording he has the music. The very practice of music is a celebration that we own nothing. John Cage singing music practice Food, one assumes, provides nourishment; but Americans eat it fully aware that small amounts of poison have been added to improve its appearance and delay its putrefaction. John Cage delay cooking food If someone says can't, that shows you what to do. John Cage possibility shows challenges Beware of losing what isn't in your head. John Cage losing Nothing more than nothing can be said. John Cage said Each something is a celebration of the nothing that supports it. John Cage celebration support The grand thing about the human mind is that it can turn its own tables and see meaninglessness as ultimate meaning. John Cage turns tables mind In an utter emptiness anything can take place. John Cage emptiness There will always be critics eager to fashion opinions for the lazy and incapable. John Cage lazy opinion fashion I needed another basis for musical structure. This I found in sound's duration parameter, sound's only parameter which is present even when no sound is intended. John Cage duration musical sound Some people take music too seriously, and some don't take it seriously enough, others take it just right. John Cage enough people The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation. John Cage operations accord purpose It was at Harvard not quite forty years ago that I went into an anechoic [totally silent] chamber not expecting in that silent room to hear two sounds: one high, my nervous system in operation, one low, my blood in circulation. The reason I did not expect to hear those two sounds was that they were set into vibration without any intention on my part. That experience gave my life direction, the exploration of nonintention. No one else was doing that. I would do it for us. I did not know immediately what I was doing, nor, after all these years, have I found out much. I compose music. John Cage two blood years
