The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel ProustIt's not the plane - it's the pilot.
Chuck YeagerIf I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I would have freed thousands more.
Harriet TubmanAfter silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
Aldous HuxleyThe real artist has no pride. Unfortunately he sees that his art has no limits. He feels obscurely how far he is from the goal.
While he is perhaps being admired by others, he mourns the fact that he has not yet reached the point to which his better genius, like a distant sun, ever beckons to him.
Ludwig van BeethovenArt is never finished, only abandoned.
Leonardo da VinciThose who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
Friedrich Wilhelm NietzscheMusic is the shorthand of emotion.
Leo TolstoyA genius is the one most like himself.
Thelonious MonkAn artist cannot fail. It is a success just to be one.
Charles Horton CooleyArt is not what you see but what you make others see.
Edgar DegasUse what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
Henry Van DykeIf a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David ThoreauDo not let what you can't do interfere with what you can do.
John WoodenIt's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to.
Jean-Luc GodardBefore anything, ask yourself, "What do I want to have happen?"
James Lee StanleyArt is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force.
There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.
Oscar WildeAll art constantly aspires toward the condition of music.
Walter PaterWhere words fail, music speaks.
Hans Christian AndersenAll the sounds of the earth are like music.
Oscar HammersteinMusic should never be harmless.
Robbie RobertsonMusic helps you find the truths you must bring into the rest of your life.
Alanis MorissetteIf music could be translated into human speech it would no longer need to exist.
Ned MoramWhen I hear music I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times and to the latest.
Henry David ThoreauAfter silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
Aldous HuxleyMusic is love in search of a word.
Sidney LanierPoliticians speak to the mainstream. Musicians speak to the bloodstream
SealMusic is not sound. Music is using sound to organize emotions in time.
Krystian ZimermanBetter to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
Robert H. SchullerAmong the many forms in which human spirit has tried to express its innermost yearnings and perceptions, music is perhaps the most universal.
It symbolizes the yearning for harmony, with oneself and others, with nature and the spiritual and the sacred within us and around us.
There is something in music that transcends and unites. This is evident in the sacred music of every community - music that expresses the universal yearning that is shared by people all over the globe.
Dalai LamaThere are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Beverly SillsInstitutions treat us as parts of a machine. They assign us ranks and place considerable pressure on us to fulfill our defined roles. We need something to help us restore our lost or distorted humanity.
Each of us has suppressed feelings that have built up, a voiceless cry in the depths of our souls, waiting for expression. Art, both in practice and appreciation, gives those feelings voice and form.
Daisaku IkedaAn artist is someone who has learnt to trust in himself
Ludwig van BeethovenMusic is much too important to be left entirely in the hands of professionals.
Robert FulghumNotes are an intelligent way of moving from one silence to another.
Jim HallIt's not what you play, it's how you play it.
Mary Lou WilliamsEverything that we see has a limit, except for our thoughts.
Marco ShepherdEverything that has a beginning has an end. Everything with no beginning will have no end.
Marco ShepherdIn our actions we reveal the world in which we live. We speak of what we see, and understand, and know. That is, everything we do is reflective of who and what we are. A musician presents a view from the world in which they live. This provides an opportunity for an audience to look into this world. Similarly a reviewer reviews himself or herself.
Robert FrippNothing is accomplished by writing a piece of music.
Nothing is accomplished by playing a piece of music.
Nothing is accomplished by hearing a piece of music.
Our ears are now in excellent condition.
John CageReality leaves a lot to the imagination.
John LennonThere is geometry in the ringing of strings. There is harmony in the spacing of the spheres.
PythagorasThe soul is composed of harmony.
Leonardo da VinciMusic begins where words end.
GoetheWithout music, life would be an error.
NeitzcheJazz has always been a man telling the truth about himself.
Quincy JonesIn music the passions enjoy themselves.
Friedrich NietzscheWithout fine arts there are no fine minds.
Amde HamiltonThe audiences are suddenly getting bigger. And when they get bigger, I get smaller.
Eddie VedderGreat spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds
Albert EinsteinAh, good taste! What a dreadful thing. Taste is the enemy of creativity.
Pablo PicassoI'll play it first and tell you what it is later.
Miles DavisPeople who make no noise are dangerous.
Jean delaFontaineThe true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
Oscar WildeA painting is never finished. It simply stops in interesting places.
Paul GardenerThe job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
Francis BaconI cannot expect even my own art to provide all of the answers. Only to hope it keeps asking the right questions.
Grace HartiganSell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
Jalal Ud-Din RumiThey always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy WarholIf someone says can't, that shows you what to do.
John CageThere are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another.
Frank ZappaIf you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language - which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you're dumb and blind.
Salman RushdieAlways remember your past, but seize your present, and dream about your future.
Silvio RodriguesI can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
John CageIt took great courage to ask a beautiful young woman to marry me. Believe me, it is easier to play the whole of Petrushka on the piano.
Artur RubinsteinBlues is easy to play, but hard to feel.
Jimi HendrixAudiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
Janis JoplinJazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.
Ornette ColemanJazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.
Max RoachFame is proof that the people are gullible.
Ralph Waldo EmersonDon't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one. Helen Keller is the other.
Erma BombeckAll the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
Michel Eyquem de MontaigneYou've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.
Duke EllingtonYou can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?
Kahlil GibranInformation is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best.
Frank ZappaA bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
Maya AngelouIt is wrong to chide the novel for being satisfied by mysterious coincidences, but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.
Milan KunderaGive the people what they want, and they will give you what you want.
William BallesterI wish there had been a music business 101 course I could have taken.
Kurt CobainThe way I see it, rock n' roll is folk music.
Robert PlantWithout freedom of expression, good taste means nothing.
Neil YoungAnybody that forms a group, writes songs and releases records and says they don't care if people like them are complete liars.
James Dean BradfieldThe Blues is about making a lot of other people feel bad, and making money while you're at it.
Bleeding-Gums MurphyEnthusiasm - from the Greek - meaning "filled with God"
unknownThere is a point beyond which we cannot return. That is the point that must be reached.
Franz KafkaThe worst that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.
J. D. SallingerThere are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
Duke EllingtonIf you don't ask, the answer is always no.
Tony RobbinsIt's not about the messenger. It's about the message.
Dalai LamaPeople will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya AngelouDon't give up, but don't give up your day job.
Robert H. SchullerThe more I can learn about music, the more I learn about other things.
Pat MethenySometimes I almost feel like music is a mistake - like we are not supposed to know about it.
Music comes in through our ears, but we all know that it is not just sounds. There is something else included in music that is very difficult to define. It reminds us of where we were before and where we are going after. It is a mysterious vapor that somehow slips in the cracks between this plane of existence and some other one. The people who are good musicians have the ability to conjure up more of that vapor than others.
More and more, I see that it is the same thing you find wherever there is love, intensity, energy, or human potential. All those good things include this same mysterious vapor that is the fabric of music.
Pat MethenyAs I get more involved and more advanced as a musician, I see that everything I do has the potential to be music and vice versa.
Pat MethenyYou are whatever you pretend to be.
Kurt VonnegutThe determination to win is the better part of winning.
Daisaku IkedaDon't push it. Just let it fall.
Duke EllingtonThe mind is like a diaper.
It's got to be changed every once in a while or it starts to stink.
Jeff KauppiSometimes it's a struggle to be not who you want to be, not who you used to be, not who you're going to be, but just being right where you are, who you are.
Vernon ReidOnly the mediocre are always at their best.
Jean GiraudouxThe only way to know how much is enough, is to do too much, and then back up.
Jerry Jeff WalkerIt is not the destination that makes the journey worthwhile.
proverbImagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert EinsteinNo man's knowledge can go beyond his experience.
John LockeIf a man gets up in the morning, goes to bed at night, and does what he pleases inbetween, he's a success.
Bob DylanAll generalizations are false, including this one.
Henry David ThoreauGood is the enemy of great.
unknownEverything in moderation, including moderation.
unknownYou get older. You start having hopes for other people rather than yourself.
Bob DylanIt doesn't matter if you're the greatest guitar player in the world. If you're not enlightened, forget it.
George HarrisonMusic should go right through you, leave some of itself inside you, and take some of you with it when it leaves.
Henry ThreadgillWhether you are playing in the bar, the church, the strip joint, or the Himalayas, the first duty of music is to complement and enhance life.
Carlos SantanaYou can build a wall to stop people, but eventually, the music, it'll cross that wall.
That's the beautiful thing about music - there's no defense against it.
I mean look at Joshua and fuckin' Jericho - made mincemeat of that joint. A few trumpets, you know?
Keith RichardsI talk to many young painters, because I teach art in schools. I ask them:
Why do you think that what you do ends at the edges of this canvas?
Think of the frame. What frame are you working in? Not just that bit of wood around the edge, but the room you're in, the light you're in, the time and place you're in. How can you redesign it?
I would say that to musicians, too. I see them spending a lot of time working on the internal details of what they're doing and far less time working on the ways of positioning it in the world.
By "positioning it" I don't only mean thinking of ways to get it to a record company, but thinking of where it could go, and where it fits in the cultural picture. What else does it relate to?
Brian EnoWRITER TO FRANK ZAPPA:
Have there been parts of your life that you've neglected because you've been absorbed in your music?
FRANK ZAPPA:
Well what am I missing? Do I regret not going horseback riding, or learning how to water ski? Well, no. I don't want to climb mountains, I don't want to do bungie-jumping. I haven't missed any of those things. If you're absorbed by something, what's to miss?
Frank ZappaSome people have a great sense of moral responsibility. Unfortunately it's backed up with a poor sense of musical taste.
Other people have great musical ability, and very little sense of moral responsibility.
It's very difficult to have a good balance.
Eric ClaptonI don't think about the meaning of it all.
I say, just plug in your damn guitar and make some noise.
Paul WesterbergI remember coming to a concert where they had a big catered meal set out for everyone.
I went and said, "Miles, man, you gotta see all this food they got here."
And Miles said, "I didn't come here to eat."
(told by Gary Bartz)
Miles DavisThings turn out better by accident sometimes.
But you can't organize accidents.
Jeff BeckTake it easy, but take it.
Woody GuthrieIf you're going to sweep the floor, sweep it better than anybody in town.
And if you're going to play the guitar, really, really, really get in it, and don't be jivin'.
Carlos SantanaIf I can get out of the way, if I can be pure enough, if I can be selfless enough, and if I can be generous and loving and caring enough to abandon what I have and my own preconceived, silly notions of what I think I am - and become truly who in fact I am, which is really just another child of God - then the music can really use me.
And therein lies my fulfillment. That's when the music starts to happen.
John McLaughlinIf there's ever a problem, I film it and it's no longer a problem. It's a film.
Andy WarholWe talk to our kids in one way, to our friends at work in another, to our lovers in yet another, to the lady in the corner shop in another.
When we make these shifts we are exercising our understanding of the worlds from which they are listening to us, and we are also projecting onwards our own view of the world in which we would like this conversation to be taking place.
When you think about it, this is an enormous and complex talent that humans spend their lives exercising, rehearsing, refining.
Brian EnoWe do feel that we have experiences of value when we hear pieces of music or read books or see films or admire textiles, don't we?
And when we do, where exactly is it coming from if not from the object?
Brian Eno'Culture' is everything we don't have to do.
Culture consists of the gratuitous stylistic extras that we add to the things we do have to do.
You have to eat, but you don't have to decorate elaborately prepared curries with silver leaf. You have to move around, but you don't have to dance.
Culture is a biological drive for humans. It is not something that we just add on at the end, after we've dealt with all those survival problems, but something we keep doing all the time.
Brian EnoWhen you listen to Miles Davis, how much of what you hear is music, and how much is context?
Context is everything that isn't physically contained in the grooves of the record. It includes your knowledge that everyone else says he's great: that must modify the way you hear him. That he was a handsome and imposing man, a member of a romantic minority, that he played with Charlie Parker, that he spans generations, that he underwent various addictions, that he married Cicely Tyson, that he dressed well, that Jean-Luc Godard liked him, that he wore shades and was very cool, that he himself said little about his work, and so on.
Surely all that affects how you hear him: I mean, could it possibly have felt the same if he'd been an overweight heating engineer from Oslo?
When you listen to music, aren't you also 'listening' to all the stuff around it, too?
Brian EnoA strong opinion is very useful to other people.
Brian EnoLuck is being ready.
Brian EnoThe more time you spend on an old idea, the more energy you invest in it, the more solid it becomes, and the more it will exclude new ideas.
Brian EnoWhen you make music you are acting as a philosopher. You can either do that consciously or you can do it unconsciously, but you're doing it.
John CageRepetition doesn't really exist.
As far as your mind is concerned, nothing happens the same twice, even if in every technical sense, the thing is identical. Your perception is constantly shifting. It doesn't stay in one place.
Brian EnoMusicians and other artists interact constantly with at least two types of systems: systems of aesthetics (what will sound good? what type of music to work with?) and economic systems that reward, or fail to reward, their efforts.
If you're confronting a set of results that you don't want, rather than trying to force the existing system to yield up a different kind of results, you might better spend your energy creating an alternative system!
This could mean anything from establishing your own concert outlet for non-commercial music to designing your own microtonal scale.
Brian EnoOne of the risks is that people are frightened of taking positions.
In the art world, particularly with painting, people are terrified now about saying that they don't like something, because they might be wrong.
Brian EnoComposition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art.
Brian EnoEvery increase in your knowledge is a simultaneous decrease. You learn and you unlearn at the same time. A new certainty is a new doubt as well.
Brian EnoWhat do Fellini's films have to do with naturalism? He works with the inaccuracies of memory. It's the opposite direction from naturalism: elevating things to mythical, archetypal status. Make them more dreamlike. That's a feeling I like a lot.
Brian EnoThe problem with thinking about your own past is you forget its genesis and start to feel useless awe towards your earlier self.
Brian EnoI like talking about ideas. I find them terribly interesting.
Brian EnoCulture is all human behaviour, outside of pure instinct. Everything we do is cultural: gardening, cooking, different fashions, architecture.
What artists (don't?) do a lot, in music in particular, is look at culture in the world. Music doesn't depict something, it's (often) about other music.
Brian EnoWith all fashion, what we do is play at being somebody else. We play at inhabiting another kind of world.
I'm role-playing effectively when I'm making fashion choices. I'm also engaging in some kind of game with myself and the rest of the world. I'm entering into some kind of simulator.
I'm saying, "What would it be like to be the kind of person that wears these kinds of glasses?"
Brian Eno