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

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

Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.
John Cage

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.
John Cage

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."
John Cage

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

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.
John Cage

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

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.
John Cage

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


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

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

We need not destroy the past. It is gone.
John Cage

When we separate music from life we get art.
John Cage