Quotes from Robert Fripp

The perception of the audience is the interesting part. If the audience doesn't hear what is going on, is it going on or not?

If the audience doesn't hear what is going on, is it going on?

Usually people think that it is the musicians who create the music, but in fact it is music who creates the musicians.

Music so wishes to be heard that it sometimes calls on unlikely characters to give it voice.

When music appears which only King Crimson can play, then, sooner or later, King Crimson appears to play the music.

Music is the cup that holds the wine of silence. Sound is that cup, but empty. Noise is that cup, but broken.

I recommend my students not to be professional unless they really have to be. I tell them, 'If you love music, sell Hoovers or be a plumber. Do something useful with your life.'

What we hear is the quality of our listening.

However, in modern conceptual frameworks there is a more sophisticated view. I would say that the act of music exists in several worlds simultaneously.

I couldn't concentrate on music. So I made the choice to give up my career as a musician in the frontline to deal with the business.

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.

Michael Giles the first drummer of King Crimson, never agreed to the name King Crimson. But then, if you'd knew Michael, you would know he didn't agree to the album cover either. So maybe Michael didn't agree to the point of definition with many things.

If a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not?

I'm not really interested in music. Music is just a means of creating a magical state.

Now, if King Crimson accepts responsibility for innovating its own tradition, you can't accept responsibility for the audience. And there is an enormous tangible weight of expectation, which comes from an audience attending a King Crimson concert.

The science is in knowing; the art in perceiving.

What has changed in 40 years? It's very simple: 40 years ago there was a market economy. Today there is a market society – today everything, including ethics, has a price.

My life as a professional musician is a joyless exercise in futility.

There are no mistakes, save one: the failure to learn from a mistake.

Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence.

A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.

Linguistic philosophers continue to argue that probably music is not a language, that is in the philosophical debate. Another point of view is to say that music is a very profound language.

Quiet is the absence of sound. Silence is the presence of silence.

I'd say that what we hear is the quality of our listening.