Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
JOHN COLTRANEJazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
JOHN COLTRANEChange is inevitable in music – things change.
JOHN COLTRANEDamn the rules, it’s the feeling that counts.
JOHN COLTRANEThe real risk is not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want.
JOHN COLTRANEAll of the technique doesn’t matter only if the feeling is right.
JOHN COLTRANEInvest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.
JOHN COLTRANEAny time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock ‘n’ roll band.
JOHN COLTRANEConsidering the great heritage in music that we have – the work of the giants of the past, the present, and the promise of those who are to come – I feel that we have every reason to face the future optimistically.
JOHN COLTRANEThere is never any end, There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we’ve discovered in its pure state.
JOHN COLTRANESometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
JOHN COLTRANEThe reason I play so many sounds, maybe it sounds angry, is because I’m trying so many things at one time, you see? I haven’t sorted them out. I have a whole bag of things that I’m trying to work through and get the one essential.
JOHN COLTRANEI want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know there are bad forces. You know, I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.
JOHN COLTRANEI want to be the force which is truly for good.
JOHN COLTRANEGod breathes through us so completely, So gently we hardly feel it, yet it is our everything.
JOHN COLTRANEThe main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.
JOHN COLTRANEMy music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being…When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups…I want to speak to their souls.
JOHN COLTRANE