John Coltrane Quotes
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Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
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The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.
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One positive thought produces millions of positive vibrations.
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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.
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Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
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When you are playing with someone who really has something to say, even though they may be otherwise quite different in style, there’s one thing that remains constant. And that is the tension of the experience, that electricity, that kind of feeling that is a lift sort of feeling. No matter where it happens, you know when that feeling comes upon you, and it makes you feel happy.
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All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.
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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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Invest yourself in everything you do. There's fun in being serious.
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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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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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You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.
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... and it's always been a thing with me to feel that all men know the truth, see? ... The truth itself doesn't have a name on it. To me. Each man has to find this for himself, I think. I believe that men are here to grow themselves into the best good that they can be... I'm not interested in trying to say what it will be, I don't know. But I believe that good will only bring good.
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Over all, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe. . . Thats what I would like to do. I think thats one of the greatest things you can do in life and we all try to do it in some way. The musicians is through his music.
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Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
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I want to be the force which is truly for good.
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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 want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know there are bad forces. You know, I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.
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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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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.
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If you're bourgeois, money is it. It's all the questions and all the answers. Ain't no E-flat or color blue, only $12.98 or $1,000. If it isn't money, it isn't nothing.
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We should pray and seek for knowledge which would enable us to portray and project the things we love in music, in a way that might wholly or in some part, be appreciated as having been conceived and composed or performed and presented with dedication and in positive taste
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I'm into scales right now.
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...That is one of the main causes of this arrogance: the idea of power. Then you lose your true power which is to be part of all, and the only way you can be part of all is to understand it. And when you don't understand, you have to go humbly to it. You don't go to school and say, 'I know what you're going to teach me'.
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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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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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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 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.
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Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in every way--through the senses, theoretically, technically. I would talk to Monk about musical problems, and he would sit at the piano and show me the answers just by playing them. I could watch him play and find out the things I wanted to know. Also, I could see a lot of things that I didn't know about at all.
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