Sun Ra Quotes

Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)

As quoted in "Sun Ra : Stranger from Outer Space" by Mike Walsh at missionCreep http://missioncreep.com/mw/sunra.html

Liner notes for Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy (1966)

As quoted in a press release by A&M Records (1989) http://www.elrarecords.com/sunra.html

"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)
Context: In some far off place
Many light years in space
I’ll wait for you.
Where human feet have never trod,
Where human eyes have never seen.
I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you.

"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 253
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Context: Sometimes in the ignorance
I feel the meaning
Invincible invisible wisdom,
And I commune with intuitive instinct
With the force that made life be
And since it made life be
It is greater than life
And since it let extinction be
It is greater than extinction.
I commune with feelings more than
prayer

As quoted in "Space is still the place" by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582
Context: People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it's like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that — someone made that; it's written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more about than black tradition. There's a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.

As quoted in "Space is still the place" by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582
Context: People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it's like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that — someone made that; it's written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more about than black tradition. There's a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.

"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Context: When the person Myth meets the person Reality
The spirit of the impossible-strange appears
In dark disguise
It is always there where nothing inverts itself
and becomes something
Whatever is the imperative need

Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)
Context: I probably do what I'm controlled to do. Something … made all this: some Impossibility without a name. That's what the world is controlled by: an Impossibility. It's controlled by someone they call "God" who never had a beginning and naturally had no end. And in a sense He doesn't exist, because of the standards of reality, because everybody knows something can't just happen — but if there is a God, that's what happened; just happened to be, and without ever having not been — they got to face that.

"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988) http://www.plonsey.com/beanbenders/SUNRA-interview.html

"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

As quoted in Sun Ra : Un noir dans le cosmos (2005) by Aurélien Tchiemessom