I had become interested in writing difficult music, etudes, because of the world system which often seems to many of us hopeless. I thought that were a musician to give the example in public of doing the impossible that it would inspire someone who was struck by that performance to change the world.
–John Cage (Note with Etcetera KTC 2016.); as quoted in Modern Music and After by Paul Griffiths, Oxford University Press 2010, pg 286-7.
