Another Beautiful Passage by John Cage

When a composer feels a responsibility to make, rather than accept, he eliminates from the area of possibility all those events that do not suggest the at that point in time vogue of profundity. For he takes himself seriously, wishes to be considered great, and he thereby diminishes his love and increases his fear and concern about what people will think. There are many serious problems confronting such an individual. He must do it better, more impressively, more beautifully, etc. than anybody else. And what, precisely, does this, this beautiful profound object, this masterpiece, have to do with Life? It has this to do with Life: we are separate from it. Now we see it and now we don't. When we see it we feel better, and when we are away from it, we don't feel so good. Life seems shabby and chaotic, disordered, ugly in contrast.

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The important question is what is it that is not just beautiful but also ugly, not just good, but also evil, not just true, but also an illusion.

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Someone may object that the sounds that happened were not interesting. Let him. Next time he hears the piece, it will be different, perhaps less interesting, perhaps suddenly exciting. Perhaps disastrous. A disaster for whom? For him, not [the composer]. And life the same: always different, sometimes exciting, sometimes boring, sometimes gently pleasing and so on; and what other important questions are there? Than that we live and how to do it in a state of accord with Life.

- John Cage