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 COLTRANESometimes 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.
More John Coltrane Quotes
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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 -
Don’t ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
JOHN COLTRANE -
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.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I want to be the force which is truly for good.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I think I know what it is but don’t ask me to play it.
JOHN COLTRANE -
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.
JOHN COLTRANE -
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.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
JOHN COLTRANE -
The 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 COLTRANE -
Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock ‘n’ roll band.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Damn the rules, it’s the feeling that counts.
JOHN COLTRANE -
One positive thought produces millions of positive vibrations.
JOHN COLTRANE -
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 -
Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
JOHN COLTRANE