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
Whether I make them or not, there are always sounds to be heard and all of them are excellent.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the idea that all sounds, regardless of their source, can hold value and beauty.
John Cage's quote highlights the concept that every sound, intentional or unintentional, contributes to the auditory landscape and has its unique significance. It reflects his belief in the artistic potential of noise and ambient sound, which can enrich our experience of the world.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of listening in music, you could use this quote to illustrate that every sound has value.
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.
Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
There was a German philosopher who is very well known, his name was Immanuel Kant, and he said there are two things that donβt have to mean anything, one is music and the other is laughter. Donβt have to mean anything that is, in order to give us deep pleasure.
I remember loving sound before I ever took a music lesson. And so we make our lives by what we love.
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
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.
I don't know what it's like for a book writer or a doctor or a teacher as they work to get established in their jobs, but for a singer, you've got to continue to grow or else you're just like last night's cornbread...stale and dry.
Writing fiction is an inherently political activity because people-even imaginary ones-do not live in vacuums... From Twilight to Romeo and Juliet to The Little Mermaid, no work of the imagination is truly apolitical, because the world and our hopes for it are always part of our stories.
Visual ideas combined with technology combined with personal interpretation equals photography. Each must hold it's own; if it doesn't, the thing collapses.
For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.
I paint what I see and not what others like to see.
I think that when we look at something that's well acted and a story that's well told, it allows us to be a mirror of who we are as human beings and as a culture, and offers a glimpse of where we're headed.
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