44 Quotes by Morton Feldman

The composer makes plans, music laughs.

I’m not suspicious, I’m just careful.

I never understood what rules I was supposed to learn, and what rules I was supposed to break.

I never feel that my music is sparse or minimalist; the way fat people never really think they’re fat. I certainly don’t consider myself minimalist at all.

What was great about the 50s is that for one brief moment – maybe, say, six weeks – nobody understood art.

Any professional knows that the flute and the piano is a boring combination. All you’ve got to arrive at is a kind of typical gestural crap, right? You might agree, though you wouldn’t call it gestural crap.

I was once married to a woman who could eat anything and tell you what was in it: the most complicated recipes. Her memory of taste – now that’s what I call memory!

To understand what music has to be, you have to live for music. Who’s ready to do that?

For me it’s the instrument. If I want to think of a flute and the state of the arts I hear a vibrato; I don’t know what a flute is unless the person plays it for me.