John Coltrane famous quotes

I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Moving #Jazz

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

#Music #Spiritual #Expression

I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I'd like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he'd be broke, I'd bring out a different song and immediately he'd receive all the money he needed.
-- John Coltrane

#Song #Rain #Play

You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Play #Sincere

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Spiritual #Religious #Play

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Men #Knowing

All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Feelings #Technique

Damn the rules, it's the feeling that counts.
-- John Coltrane

#Feelings

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Wish #Firsts

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

#Real #Men #Risk

God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.
-- John Coltrane

#Breathe #Feels

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

#People #Soul #Musical

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Beautiful #People #Doe

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

#Giving #Musician #Wonderful

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
-- John Coltrane

#Dedication #Might #Way

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Feelings #Style #Different

Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft
-- John Coltrane

#Fall #Dark #Monk

When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #People #Desire

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Spiritual #Expression

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

#Music #Eye #Play

All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Musician #Source

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

#Music #Wish #Firsts

Change is inevitable in music - things change.
-- John Coltrane

#Things Change #Inevitable #Change Is Inevitable

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

#Thinking #Bird #Musical

Invest yourself in everything you do. There's fun in being serious.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Fun #Serious

I'm into scales right now.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #Scales

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Believe #Men #Want

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Thinking #Giving #Trying

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

#Play #Trying #Sound

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

#Inspirational #Thinking #Play

Keep a thing happenin' all throughout.
-- John Coltrane

#Things Happen

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

#Music #Law #Jazz

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

#Feelings #Sound #Needs

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

#Music #Thinking #Glasses

One positive thought produces millions of positive vibrations.
-- John Coltrane

#Carpe Diem #Vibrations #Positive Thoughts

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

#Christian #Men #Thinking

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Real #Opposites #Suffering

During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD.
-- John Coltrane

#Spiritual #Gratitude #Mean

Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
-- John Coltrane

#Listening #Important #Bigs

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

#Music #Communication #Emotional

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Order #Play #Piano

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Blue #Color #Answers

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

#Rocks #Play #Band

...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'.
-- John Coltrane

#Music #School #Ideas

I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of people.
-- John Coltrane

#Thinking #People #Patterns

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.
-- John Coltrane

#Past #Promise #Giants