Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music as if for the first time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a part of it, I’ll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels, and that’s too bad.
JOHN COLTRANEMy music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.
More John Coltrane Quotes
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I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.
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Don’t ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
JOHN COLTRANE -
The 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.
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My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there’s no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being.
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I’ve always felt that even though a man was not a Christian, he still has to know the truth some way or another. Or if he was a Christian, he could know the truth. The truth itself doesn’t have any name on it to me. And each man has to find this for himself, I think.
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I’m into scales right now.
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When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.
JOHN COLTRANE -
The 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 COLTRANE -
I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of people.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I want to be the force which is truly for good.
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All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.
JOHN COLTRANE -
You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.
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My 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