As I was saying: we have come/ (or are we still going?) to a/ point where it is necessary to/ speak at cross purposes with what/ we are saying. It is because what-/ ever we were saying so failed to/ hit the mark. Now at last we know that/ saying one thing requires saying/ the opposite in order to keep the/ whole statement from being like/ a Hollywood set. Perhaps it would/ be better to be silent, but a) someone/ else would be speaking; and b) it/ wouldn’t keep us from going and we/ would continue doing what we/ are doing.
—John Cage, “Where Are We Going? And What Are We Doing?” (1961), collected in Silence
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theater, natural history and conservation, the utterly mundane, and Etruscan 8-tracks