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 COLTRANEI’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.
More John Coltrane Quotes
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The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.
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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.
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Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock ‘n’ roll band.
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God breathes through us so completely, So gently we hardly feel it, yet it is our everything.
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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 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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Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
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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.
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I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of people.
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I believe that men are here to grow themselves into the best good that they can be – at least, this is what I want to do.
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Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.
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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.
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Considering 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.
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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