John Zorn Quotes

I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, and I feel like I can pull ideas from practically anything. You name it - I'll probably like it.

I shall always respect the composer. If I embellish, it is his idea I am embellishing.

I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.

Well mostly in song writing my experience is that there isn't so much inspiration as hard work. You sit there for hours, days and weeks with a guitar and piano until something good comes.

I never think about rhythm versus melody; I've always just played to what's in my head.

The Beatles never sounded intimidated by their idols. They never interpreted old rock; they simply played it as well and as joyfully as they knew how. On 'Rock 'n' Roll,' John Lennon does nothing but interpret old rock.

Music is funny. I shouldn't even ever talk about music, because you can have all the ideas in your head, and it never goes exactly the way that you think it's gonna go.

Many times you make music and someone decides to try and pick the best of everything. But if you wait, you sometimes fall out of love, or a song doesn't speak to you anymore, so you lose the moment.

The composer makes plans, music laughs.

As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm.

I can't legislate a song into being; it just will not happen for me.

When I get into the studio, it's not about trying to get a good song, it's about whatever comes naturally.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

I still picture myself as a student of the music. I'm always trying to learn new things. Music is just what makes me tick.

I try to steal something from the great singers. Of course, I don't want to imitate their sound, but I try to do a sort of compromise.

Sometimes I feel like a melody doesn't have anything to do with me, but it's just something that comes, is accumulated from me playing on the piano, and then this little creature just appears.

Any new ideas go into PiL. My inspiration is everything that the human being gets up to. I don't listen to any music when I'm in PiL-zone, because influences can poison your well. Otherwise, I listen to anything.

People write music, and the music is out there for people to interpret it how they want to.

I think it's like music for the sake of music, and a lot of the words stem from liking music a lot, wanting to be a good band and having a good sense of humour, and living in a situation where we're free to pretty much do what we want.

Part of Michael's uniqueness, I think, comes from the fact that he worked with music. He had a tape which he gave me with many different compositions, really eclectic. These pieces of music were sources of inspiration.

Music has nothing to do with your technical ability.

Good taste - that's all you really need when you're playing an instrument.

There's art in rhythm playing. Just find it. Make your own art. Find your place, and when it's your time to solo, it's your time to shine.

Every day, you have to make three hours of music, just randomly improvising, and that's a great way to weed stuff out.

Being scared is really a good thing. It's being scared of being scared that's bad. Being scared of walking through your fear, going to a place of true creativity - that's what an artist is, that's what he does. If you do that, then being inspired by your contemporaries or people from the past is really great.