Carolina QuotesQ: What would you like to be in 10 years? A: I'd like to be a saint.
John Coltrane Carolinian
Source
Asked by Kiyoshi Koyama at the press conference at the beginning of the Japanese tour ([July 7,] 1966), as cited in Katherine Whatley "Kiyoshi Koyama: A life lived with jazz", The Japan Times (March 29, 2018)
- year
- 1966
Cite this record
“Q: What would you like to be in 10 years? A: I'd like to be …” John Coltrane. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-558C75CD00. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/558c75cd00
More from John Coltrane
I thought about this question. I answered it as best I could [at the press conference]. I felt I didn't tell [the reporter] what I really wanted to say. He thought I was Christian. And I am by birth; my parents were and my early teachings were Christian. But as I look upon the world, I feel all men know the truth. If a man was a Christian, he could know the truth and he could not. The truth itself does not have any name on it. And each man has to find it for himself, I think.
My goal is to live the truly religious life and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music is just part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am—my faith, my knowledge, my being.
[T]he 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.