Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.
JOHN COLTRANEAll a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
More John Coltrane Quotes
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I want to be the force which is truly for good.
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 -
God breathes through us so completely, So gently we hardly feel it, yet it is our everything.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I’m doing, the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there’s some feeling of communication, it isn’t necessary that it be understood.
JOHN COLTRANE -
My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.
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 -
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.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of people.
JOHN COLTRANE -
The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.
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 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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
JOHN COLTRANE