art and the value of being alive

From an interview in Inside Arts Magazine, with jazz genius Ornette Coleman:

I believe that creativity is like a form of religion: you should learn the value of being alive first. Then the mechanical stuff. Academic knowledge is founded on what creative artists have done.

Since I've gotten older I've come to the belief that dying is not just physical. Dying is failing to reach your humanity.

I don't think that it's important for audiences to know the form of what I'm playing. I'd just rather put the information out in a way that lets them deal with the sound of it. I have no idea of trying to play something that would soothe or please them. I want to approach it as trying to affect the meaning of their lives. Sound is our way of translating knowledge and emotion. Tone is more sensitive than sex.

What makes a person wise is to be in a place and have an experience that no one else is having. Art can do that. Art can give one experience that everybody will take in differently.