Cecil Taylor Quotes

Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the harmonious development of both society and the individual.

If I had to name my greatest value in life, it would be beauty.

I really love things with melody.

A scale is just the notes that are in a chord played one at a time instead of together. That's what has allowed me to go through the possible notes that work with a chord and make choices about which ones I like best. I go through by ear; you can do it by theory too, but the best way is to learn by ear.

In improvising, you've got your scale; you've got the notes that are going to sound good with other notes, the intervals that are going to sound good. But you've also got all the chromatic possibilities, the possibilities of sounding dissident, of being unexpected.

An artist is an artist only because of his exquisite sense of beauty, a sense which shows him intoxicating pleasures, but which at the same time implies and contains an equally exquisite sense of all deformities and all disproportion.

I like to focus on making the music sound simple and true, and very lush and full. I think music should take you to somewhere else where you have the space to contemplate or exercise your imagination. All the while you should be feeling real good, like when you have a delicious and decadent meal, macaroni and cheese or foie gras.

Music fathoms the sky.

It's not about retro or modern, it's about this note or that note, which sounds better?

When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.

I liken movies to playing a piano: Sometimes you're playing the chords and different notes with unresolved cadences and playing all major chords that are all over the place, and you're enjoying yourself with a great, simple melody.

Much of the stress and emptiness that haunt us can be traced back to our lack of attention to beauty. Internally, the mind becomes coarse and dull if it remains unvisited by images and thoughts that hold the radiance of beauty.

I like to be surrounded by harmonies and fullness and richness and vitality.

Ever since I was a child I've always been very attracted to melodies. Whether I hear Jeff Beck, a choir, an ocean or the wind, there's always a melody in there.

Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes.

I have the same feeling when I walk in a very beautiful place that I have when I play and it goes right.

I love the physical thing of being on the earth that bore you. I have the same feeling when I walk in a very beautiful place that I have when I play and it goes right.

I just love pretty things, whether it is art, a song or a pair of shoes.

The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

I really wanted there to be something in my life that I enjoy just for the beauty of it.

When someone does a small task beautifully, their whole environment is affected by it.

My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.

I think optimism springs from nature. I'm a gardener. Nature has taught me about rhythm, the essence of every art. With so much that is terrible, nature gives me pleasure.

And I've made it a choice on my records that sometimes I leave the breath or the trailing note that sometimes falls into a flat or a sharp.