Another "Silence" Excerpt

There are people who say, "If music's that easy to write, I could do it." Of course they could, but they don't. I find [Morton] Feldman's own statement more affirmative. We were driving back from some place in New England where a concert had been given. He is a large man and falls asleep easily. Out of a sound sleep, he awoke to say, "Now that things are so simple, there's so much to do." And then he went back to sleep.

One thing that has always pissed me off is when someone says, "Even I could do that." But they don't. And that's the point. Art is not about technical ability - and that goes over the layman's head. The layman calls the artist pretentious, but the true pretension lies in the layman. Should artists restrict themselves to what the layman thinks is art, or should everyone just let art be?