- Saval attributes the phrases "no such thing as silence" and "let sound be" to John Cage's 4'33": an experimental work that took the most radical approach in experiments with silence.
- Writer Saval says that Robert Rauschenberg white canvasses partly inspired Cage's totally silent 1952 work, which included one single performer, closing and opening the lid of a piano at the beginning and end of each of its three movements.
- Here is an excerpt from John Cage speaking at the premiere of 4′33″:
-“They missed the point. There’s no such thing as silence. What they thought was silence, because they didn’t know how to listen, was full of accidental sounds. You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During the second, raindrops began pattering the roof, and during the third the people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out."
