Quote #17

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.

More from John Cage

  1. In Zen, it is said, if something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. …
  2. As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
  3. The living, for the first time in history, now outnumber the dead
  4. I remember loving sound before I ever took a music lesson. And so we make our lives by what we love.
  5. I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
  6. Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.
  7. 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 w…
  8. I have nothing to say/ and I am saying it/ and that is poetry/ as I need it.

All John Cage quotes