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

— John Cage

Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.

— John Cage

I discovered that those who seldom dwell on their emotions know better than anyone else just what an emotion is.

— John Cage

If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.

— 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

I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.

— John Cage

I haven't been to a movie for three months of Sundays. I gather from what Carolyn reports that Hollywood now produces false entertainment: unmitigated violence on the screen; snickering, laughter in the audience.

— John Cage

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

— John Cage

It would be better to have no school at all than the schools we now have. Encouraged, instead of frightened, children could learn several languages before reaching age of four, at that age engaging in the invention of their own languages. Play'd be played instead of being, as now, release of repressed anger.

— John Cage

I went to a concert upstairs in Town Hall. The composer whose works were being performed had provided program notes. One of these notes was to the effect that there is too much pain in the world. After the concert I was walking along with the composer, and he was telling me how the performances had not been quite up to snuff. So I said, "Well, I enjoyed the music, but I didn't agree with that program note about there being too much pain in the world." He said, "What? Don't you think there's enough?" I said, "I think there's just the right amount.

— John Cage