John Cage

"It is characteristic of the self-conscious form that it passes over into such a second moment as this."

"Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music, but of course, not everyone does."

"Be faithful to your own tastes, for they alone can lead you to beauty."

"The use of tape, splicing and editing, all of which are compositional possibilities, can improve the quality of music."

"The most important thing is to ask questions."

"All music is noise."

"We must leave room for the unexpected."

"Life is there and we live it wherever we live."

"Try to be of the twentieth century while you can."

"Everyone is in the best seat."

"I do not feel certain of anything, but I do not doubt."

"Give up the desire to make even more and more money."

"A museum should be a place where nothing changes."

"Music is a problem of sound and time."

"There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time."

"Society is how we hang together to face our common problems."

"I wanted to compose a piece of uninterrupted silence and sell it to the Muzak company."

"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used."

"Art should not be different from life."

"We are not alive in the way scientists say we are alive."

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

"Yoga and I are old friends."

"The smallest flower is a thought."

"We must listen to the world around us, not just the sounds we expect to hear."

"Do not try to create and analyze at the same time. They are different processes."

"We live in a four-dimensional space, not three-dimensional."

"The purpose of philosophy and religion is precisely to curb the intelligence."

"To be occupied forever by the creative process is to be alive."

"Things are not the way they are. The way things are is the way people understand them to be."

"Begin anywhere."