Let No One Imagine That In Owning

When 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.

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.

After I Had Been Studying With Him For Two Years, Schoenberg Said, ‘in Order To Write Music, You Must Have A Feeling For Harmony.’ I Explained To Him That I Had No Feeling For Harmony. He Then Said That I Would Always Encounter An Obstacle, That It Would Be As Though I Came To A Wall Through Which I Could Not Pass. I Said, ‘in That Case I Will Devote My Life To Beating My Head Against That Wall.’

What Is The Purpose Of Writing Music? One Is, Of Course, Not Dealing With Purposes But Dealing With Sounds. Or The Answer Must Take The Form Of A Paradox: A Purposeful Purposeless Or A Purposeless Play. This Play, However, Is An Affirmation Of Life--not An Attempt To Bring Order Out Of Chaos Nor To Suggest Improvements In Creation, But Simply A Way Of Waking Up To The Very Life We’re Living, Which Is So Excellent Once One Gets One’s Mind And One’s Desires Out Of Its Way And Lets It Act Of Its Own Accord.

Whether I Make Them Or Not, There Are Always Sounds To Be Heard And All Of Them Are Excellent.