Top 72 Quotes & Sayings by John Coltrane - Page 2

The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.

Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

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.

Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.

I'm into scales right now.

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.

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.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

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

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.

I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.

I think I know what it is but don't ask me to play it