The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.
A second kind of silence is the silence that precedes words, a silence that is a preparation for speech. It involves a patience that deeply considers what ought to be said and how, one that troubles itself over the meaning of the words to be used and proceeds with great care.
L. M. Sacasas • Impossible Silences - The Convivial Society
“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.”
Just a moment...
She said that John said silence is nothing but the things we choose to ignore and exclude, and that he left empty space in the music so he could show the listener that it was not actually empty, just subject to the whims of chance.
Eliza Barry Callahan • The Hearing Test: A Novel
When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you. It tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your mind is silent, then the forest suddenly becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God.
Thomas Merton • A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals
Einstein famously attributed some of his greatest physics breakthroughs to his violin breaks, which he believed connected different parts of his brain in new ways.