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 COLTRANEMy 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.
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.
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You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.
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I’m into scales right now.
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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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The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.
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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.
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Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.
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I want to be the force which is truly for good.
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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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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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God breathes through us so completely, So gently we hardly feel it, yet it is our everything.
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Don’t ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
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Damn the rules, it’s the feeling that counts.
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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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Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.
JOHN COLTRANE