Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
JOHN COLTRANEThe 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.
More John Coltrane Quotes
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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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Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
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You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.
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.
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One positive thought produces millions of positive vibrations.
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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 -
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 -
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.
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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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All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I think I know what it is but don’t ask me to play it.
JOHN COLTRANE -
My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.
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.
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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 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.
JOHN COLTRANE -
God breathes through us so completely, So gently we hardly feel it, yet it is our everything.
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.
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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.
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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 -
Change is inevitable in music – things change.
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.
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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.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
JOHN COLTRANE -
All of the technique doesn’t matter only if the feeling is right.
JOHN COLTRANE