M Quotes

“College: two hundred people reading the same book. An obvious mistake. Two hundred people can read two hundred books.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Combine nursing homes with nursery schools. Bring very old and very young together: they interest one another.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Sleep's what we need. It produces an emptiness in us into which sooner or later energies flow.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“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 play instead of being, as now, release of repressed anger.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“In our forests
part divine
and makes her heart palpitate
wild and tame are one. What a delicious Sound!”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Clothes I wear for mushroom hunting are rarely sent to the cleaner. They constitute a collection of odors I produce and gather while rambling in the woods. I notice not only dogs (cats, too) are delighted (they love to smell me).”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Why is it that children, taught the names of the months and the fact that there are twelve of them, don't ask why the ninth is called the seventh (September), the tenth called the eight (October), the eleventh called the ninth (November), the twelfth called the tenth (December)?”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Freedom from likes and dislikes, the sudden sense of identification, the spirit of comedy.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Farting, don't think, just fart.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Only chance to make the world a success for humanity lies in technology, grand possibility technology provides to do more with less, and indiscriminately for everyone. Return to nature as nature pre-technologically was, attractive and possible as it still in some places is, can only work for some of us.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Computer mistake in grade-giving resulted in academic failure of several brilliant students. After some years the mistake was discovered. Letter was sent to each student inviting him to resume his studies. Each replied he was getting along very well without education.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Syntax, like government, can only be obeyed. It is
therefore of no use except when you
have something particular to command
such as: Go buy me a bunch of carrots.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“He suggests that contraceptive substances be added to basic foods.... Should a couple wish to have a child, they'd go to special stores to procure their food. Every child a wanted child.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Guy Nearing told us it's a good idea when hunting mushrooms to have a pleasant goal, a waterfall for instance, and, having reached it, to return another way. When, however, we're obliged to go and come back by the same path, returning we notice mushrooms we hadn't noticed going out.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Frost interviewing Noel Coward and Margaret Mead. Sir Noel's view of life is Sir Noel. Mead's mind is large and open, like Buckminster Fuller's. She found thoughts dull that suggest that men are superior to animals or plants.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Remove God from the world of ideas. Remove government, politics from society. Keep sex, humor, utilities. Let private property go.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Valda said that if you change your residence every six months you can legally free your children from compulsory education.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“I needed another basis for musical structure. This I found in sound's duration parameter, sound's only parameter which is present even when no sound is intended.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Dad's oil dehydrator was a contained electrostatic field, one electrode down the center, the other the container's inner wall. Principal problem was finding a dielectric to separate the two. Refuse oil poured in came out as oil of the highest grade, dry chemicals, and drinking water. Petroleum Rectifying Company successfully prohibited its use.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“While he rested, she asked, 'What's the difference between natives and outsiders?' 'Natives,' he replied, 'eat indoors and shit outdoors, outsiders eat outdoors and shit indoors.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Power and profit structures're out of cahoots with current technology. Aware of new inventions, corporations put them aside, waiting for competitive reasons until they're obliged to use new gimmicks.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“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, M: Writings '67–'72

“Technological errors made by government, industry [DDT, ABM, SST, CIA, etc.] are those of children, who, even thought they don't know what the score is, go on playing pre-technological games of power and profit.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“The reason we life black people isn't because they're black. We like them because they're not as grey as we are.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Put 'em who threaten possessions and power together with 'em who offend our tastes in sex and dope. Those who're touched, put 'em in asylums. Pack off old ones to 'senior communities,' nursing homes. Our children? Keep'em prisoner, baby-sitter as warden. School? Good for fifteen to twenty years. Army afterward. Liberated, we live in prison. No this, no that. Kill us before we die!”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Corporate Responsibility; Environmental Preservation; Consumer Protection; Sex & Race Discrimination (they must mean Sex and Race Liberation).”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“Veblen called it the price-system. Mills called it the Power Elite. It's probably no more than ninety-nine people who don't know what they are doing. They're involved in high finance. Fascinating form of gambling.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72