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I once asked Aragon, the historian, how history was written. He said, 'You have to invent it.' When I wish as now to tell of critical incidents, persons, and events that have influenced my life and work, the true answer is all of the incidents were critical, all of the people influenced me, everything that happened and that is still happening influences me.

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More quotes by John Cage

A finished work is exactly that, requires resurrection.

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?

Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens.

I have nothing to say/ and I am saying it/ and that is poetry/ as I need it.

Lecture on Nothing (1949)

Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.

Richard Kostelanetz (1988)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Cage (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.