Frasi di John Cage

„Non riesco a capire perché la gente ha paura di nuove idee. Io ho paura delle vecchie idee.
Não consigo entender porque as pessoas têm medo das novas ideias. Eu tenho medo das velhas ideias.“

—  John Cage

„Gli scacchi non erano altro che un pretesto per stare con lui.“

—  John Cage

Marcel Duchamp

„I suoni se ne stanno nella musica per rendersi conto del silenzio che li separa.“

—  John Cage

„La mia opera è intesa come dimostrazione della vita.“

—  John Cage

„Ora non ho più bisogno di un pianoforte: ho la 6th Avenue con tutti i suoi suoni.“

—  John Cage

„Per me il significato essenziale del silenzio è la rinuncia a qualsiasi intenzione.“

—  John Cage

„Sviluppare un orecchio solo per i suoni musicali è come crearsi un ego. Si inizia a rifiutare i suoni che non sono musicali e ci si taglia fuori da gran parte delle esperienze.“

—  John Cage

Origine: Citato in AA.VV., Il libro della musica classica, traduzione di Anna Fontebuoni, Gribaudo, 2019, p. 303. ISBN 9788858022894)

„Ogni qualcosa è un eco del nulla.“

—  John Cage

Origine: Citato in AA.VV., Il libro della musica classica, traduzione di Anna Fontebuoni, Gribaudo, 2019, p. 305. ISBN 9788858022894)

„Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
Are the people inside the school musical and the ones outside unmusical?“

—  John Cage

"Communication", the third of the Composition as a Process lectures, John Cage gave in Darmstadt in 1958 and published in Silence.
1950s

„The world is teeming; anything can happen.“

—  John Cage, libro Silence: Lectures and Writings

Origine: Silence: Lectures and Writings

„There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.“

—  John Cage

„Every something is an echo of nothing“

—  John Cage

„In the dark, all cats are black.“

—  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

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

—  John Cage

Quoted in Richard Kostelanetz (1988) Conversing with Cage
1980s

„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

„I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I'm doing.“

—  John Cage

„Get yourself out of whatever cage you find yourself in.“

—  John Cage

„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 way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.“

—  John Cage