Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.
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.
More John Coltrane Quotes
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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.
JOHN COLTRANE -
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 -
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’d like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.
JOHN COLTRANE -
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 -
There 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 COLTRANE -
You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.
JOHN COLTRANE -
There are so many things to be considered in making music. The whole question of life itself… I know that I want to produce beautiful music, music that does things to people that they need.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I’m into scales right now.
JOHN COLTRANE -
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 COLTRANE -
I 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 COLTRANE -
Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Damn the rules, it’s the feeling that counts.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Whatever I’d say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was one of the greatest people I’ve ever known, as a man, a friend, and a musician.
JOHN COLTRANE






