John Zorn Quotes

Great musicians accept everything that they hear and find something good. They take what they like and they throw away what they don't like

I see myself and many artists like me as the torchbearers through these dark ages.

If you can make art with sound, can't you make music with objects?

Eye was a great discovery. He is one of the great vocalists of all time.

We're not on the outside looking in, we're on the outside looking out.

I'm constantly tortured, and that's why I say happiness is irrelevant. Happiness is for children and yuppies.

I feel like there are messages. I feel like there are angels. I feel that there is a legacy and an energy. And I feel that it's possible to tap into that.

It's a matter of keeping people on a spontaneous edge.

I have wit in my work and a sense of humor, but I do not use irony in any way

You need to believe in something that's bigger than yourself. I think that's what everybody wants to believe in that.

I have about two or three people, we don't have an office, we don't even have a dedicated phone line. We do it out of our own homes, and we make it work.

One of the reasons I started Tzadik, which is my own label, is to keep things in print. I got tired of labels dropping things out of print when they don't sell.

It's a blast to watch. It's a lot more interesting live than it is on record. I mean, it really is a theatrical event. It's a sporting event! Cause you never know what's gonna happen.

The idealists will always be in society, and we will survive

When I'm writing, sometimes it gets to that place where I feel like the piece is writing itself and I'm trying not to get in the way

One thing that I do ask myself when I'm in the creative process is, 'Does the world need this?'

You can't be idealistic in this world and not be crazy

And I try to be as diplomatic as I can, but it always ends up being a psychodrama up there on stage.

Discipline is important as long as you're having a good time. What I always did was I did what I enjoyed, and I think that's why I don't have any grey hairs.

I have no doubts. I know what gets in the way and I know what encourages me to do more work.

Music is about people for me. It's not about sounds. It's about people; it's about putting people into challenging situations. And for me, challenges are opportunities.

I mean I have had a very combative relationship with critics because I'm very impatient with people that don't give my work the respect I feel it deserves.

I'm not a practicing kabbalist. I'm not a spiritual master. I'm not a rabbi. I don't - but it's part of who I am.

No one sits in front of a drum set and thinks they invented it all out of whole cloth. The fact that the set is there means that you've got some dues to pay to Baby Dodds.

As soon as you get a certain amount of attention, then everybody kinda wants to start taking pot shots at you. All your old friends that supported you don't support you any more.

I have not practiced saxophone since 1980. I mean, not one note. I do not pick it up in my house, and that's the end of it.

That was my challenge as a composer. Like with anything, to keep yourself interested in doing what you do, you set yourself challenges. So I said, Okay, I'll try to write a hundred tunes in a year.

I put together the influences of my life in as clear a way as I possibly can, in the same way that Beethoven or Schoenberg or Bach put their influences together.

People sometimes have a very hard time accepting change.

I was always an outsider, proud of being an outsider. I always reveled in the outsiders.

I have wit in my work and a sense of humor, but I do not use irony in any way.