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. . . I don’t make use of
the wisdom aspects
[of the I Ching] in the writing of music or in the writing of texts.
I use it simply as a kind of computer, as a facility. If I have some question
that requires a wise answer, then of course I use it that way. On occasion
I do. But if I want to know which sound of one hundred sounds I’m to use,
then I use it just as a computer.
. . . The mechanism by means of which the I Ching works is, I think, the same as that by means of which the DNA—or one of those things in the chemistry of our body—works. It’s a dealing with the number sixty-four, with a binary situation with all of its variations in six lines. I think it’s a rather basic life mechanism. I prefer it to other chance operations. I began using it nearly thirty years ago, and I haven’t stopped. Some people think that I’m enslaved by it, but I feel that I am liberated by it.
John Cage
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