John Cage

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

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

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.

Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.

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

We need not destroy the past. It is gone.

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.

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

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

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

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.'

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

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.

When we separate music from life we get art.