I think the main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe. That's what music is to me-it's just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, that's been given to us, and here's an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is. That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life, and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music.

John Coltrane

More information about this quote

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Original Citation

Coltrane, John. "John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy Answer the Jazz Critics." Interviewed by Don DeMichael. DownBeat, 12 Apr. 1962.

Current Citation

Coltrane, John. Quoted in Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties, written by Scott Saul. Harvard University Press, 2003.