John Cage

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

"There is no such thing as silence. Something is always happening that makes a sound."

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

"The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all."

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

"Everything we do is music."

"One may perform for an audience of one."

"To hell with culture as it has been understood. Culture based on objects and revolving around masterpieces is a very unhealthy way of supporting the objects themselves."

"We are called to open our minds and hearts to the whole universe."

"The attitude I am expressing is the attitude of daily life."

"Silence is not silence. Silence is a function of an audience."

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."

"One must be bored by at least three people a day or one is not exercising one's toleration."

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."

"Use the telephone. It's a good way to talk to people."

"I would find out what the number of the stars is. I would know the stars by name."

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

"We must distinguish between the metaphorical and the literal."

"And what is the purpose of writers? To say what happens."

"The essential meaning of what we are trying to do is to change people's minds, not to kill them."

"In Zen they say: if you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are."

"God is in the details."

"We must be careful not to exclude anyone from the conversation."

"The fact that I do not like something does not mean that something is not good."

"Let's be reasonable and add an eighth wonder of the world. Since we can never forget the seven wonders, let's add an eighth. It is right there in front of us."

"The mind is the prison of the body and the body is the prison of the mind."

"To improve the world, we must improve ourselves."

"I would rather explore than stay at home."

"One needs only to observe how dogs and pigeons produce their particular sounds."

"Something new has happened. There is a possibility of making things now without having them be masterpieces."