I chose the Magic Square as a means of changing my responsibility from that of making choices to that of making moves on a chart that had not numbers but sounds on it. Two other composers did likewise at the same time (the idea was in the air): one of them was Wyschnegradsky in Paris. So that when Christian Wolff brought me the I Ching with its square of 64 hexagrams I was immediately struck and quickly outlined the composing means for the Music of Changes. My responsibility had become the asking of questions. I was able to relate any number of answers to the 64 numbers of the I Ching.

I became free by means of the I Ching from the notion of 2 (relationship). Or you could say I saw that all things are related. We don’t have to bring about relationships.

I use the I Ching whenever I am engaged in an activity which is free of goal-seeking, pleasure giving, or discriminating between good and evil. That is to say, when writing poetry or music, or when making graphic works. But I do not use it when crossing a street, playing a game of chess, making love, or working in the field of world improvement. I also use the I Ching as a book of wisdom, but infrequently, and not as often as formerly.

The way the I Ching works as a computer musically is to tell me for instance how many sound events take place in what length of time, at what points in time, on which instruments, having what loudnesses, etc. And in my writing it lets me continue, in a variety of ways, my search for a means which comes from ideas but is not about them but nevertheless produces them free of my intentions.

John Cage