Food, one assumes, provides nourishment; but Americans eat it fully aware that small amounts of poison have been added to improve its appearance and delay its putrefaction.
John CageRead
Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The context in which sounds are produced affects their perception as music.
John Cage’s quote highlights the idea that the environment and setting in which sound occurs can significantly influence how we perceive and categorize those sounds. What might be considered music in one context, such as near a music school, can be seen merely as noise in another, such as near a factory. This suggests that music is not just about the sounds themselves, but also about the relationships and contexts surrounding them.
Themes
MusicContextSoundPerceptionEnvironment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can spark a discussion about the nature of music in a classroom setting.
More from John Cage
All quotes →There was a German philosopher who is very well known, his name was Immanuel Kant, and he said there are two things that don’t have to mean anything, one is music and the other is laughter. Don’t have to mean anything that is, in order to give us deep pleasure.
John CageRead
I remember loving sound before I ever took a music lesson. And so we make our lives by what we love.
John CageRead
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
John CageRead
People who aren't artists often feel that artists are inspired. But if you work at your art you don't have time to be inspired.
John CageRead
Let no one imagine that in owning a recording he has the music. The very practice of music is a celebration that we own nothing.
John CageRead
Similar quotes
Comic-book pages are vertical, and movie screens are relentlessly horizontal. But it's all the same form. We use different tools, but we get the job done. I'm completely in love with CGI. It's great for conveying a cartoonist's sense of reality.
Frank MillerRead
The thing that was important to me about Hemingway at the time was that Hemingway taught me that you could be a writer and get away with it.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
When you have a reputation for making not only good songs but great albums, that in itself creates added artistic pressure. But, at the end of the day, I guess that pressure is something I welcome.
Jay-ZRead
My songs are personal music, they're not communal. I wouldn't want people singing along with me. It would sound funny. I'm not playing campfire meetings. I don't remember anyone singing along with Elvis, Carl Perkins or Little Richard.
Bob DylanRead
a poet is someone who is abnormally fond of that precision which creates movement. Which is to say the highest form of concentration possible: fascination; to report on the electrifying experience of being
E. E. CummingsRead
It's true that misunderstanding and lack of understanding are often themes in my fiction, but I am grateful for the moments when true understanding is achieved, especially between writer and reader. It's miraculous.
Ken LiuRead