What is the purpose of writing music? One is, of course, not dealing with purposes but dealing with sounds. Or the answer must take the form of a paradox: a purposeful purposeless or a purposeless play. This play, however, is an affirmation of life--not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life weβre living, which is so excellent once one gets oneβs mind and oneβs desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord.
More Author Quotes
- Art is sort of an experimental station in which one tries out living. β¨ John Cage (2010). Silence: Lectures and Writings, p.39, Wesleyan University Press
- The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation. β¨ John Cage (2010). Silence: Lectures and Writings, p.55, Wesleyan University Press
- The function of Art is to imitate Nature in her manner of operation. Our understanding of her manner of operation&Rdquo; changes according to advances in the sciences.
- Now that we have everything we need, we discover that there is almost nothing that we have that we want β¨ John Cage (2010). M: Writings β67ββ72, p.205, Wesleyan University Press
- Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school? β¨ Silence (1961)
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