Ravi Shankar Music Quotes & Sayings

I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan. — Serj Tankian

The music that I have learned and want to give is like worshipping God. It's absolutely like a prayer. — Ravi Shankar

My music has a very spiritual background, a sanctity that is almost like worship. — Ravi Shankar

My secret ambition was always to provide music for animation films: something with an Indian theme, either a fairy tale or mythological tale or on the Krishna theme. I still have a very deep desire, but these sorts of chances don't always come. — Ravi Shankar

With charity, money is purified. By service, our actions are purified. With music, our emotions are purified and with knowledge our intellect is purified. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

My brother had a house in Paris. To it came many Western classical musicians. These musicians all made the same point: 'Indian music,' they said, 'is beautiful when we hear it with the dancers. On its own, it is repetitious and monotonous.' — Ravi Shankar

In the U.K., classical music is composed by individuals and written down. Indian music is based on certain sequences called ragas. When I perform live, 95% of the music is improvised: it never sounds the same twice. — Ravi Shankar

I don't appreciate avant-garde, electronic music. It makes me feel quite ill. — Ravi Shankar

In the olden days, I believe Mozart also improvised on piano, but somehow in the last 200 years, the whole training of Western classical music - they don't read between the lines, they just read the lines. — Ravi Shankar

Ah, 'Pather Panchali' was the most inspiring film that I wrote music for, and it was so spontaneously done. I saw the film, composed on the spot, along with myself and only four other musicians, and everything was done within 4-1/2 hours, I think an all-time record anywhere. — Ravi Shankar

I try to give to my music the spiritual quality, very deep in the soul, which does something even if you are not realizing it or analyzing it - that's the duty of the music. — Ravi Shankar

I will keep playing as long as my body lets me, and as long as I'm wanted by my listeners. Because music is the only thing that keeps me going. — Ravi Shankar

Pop changes week to week, month to month. But great music is like literature. — Ravi Shankar

I started out as a dancer, but gradually became more interested in music. — Ravi Shankar

If you are unhappy, even the moon irritates you, sweet things nauseate, music disturbs. When you are calm and centered inside, noise is musical, clouds are magical, rain is liquid love. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

In India, I have been called a 'destroyer.' But that is only because they mixed my identity as a performer and as a composer. As a composer I have tried everything, even electronic music and avant-garde. But as a performer I am, believe me, getting more classical and more orthodox, jealously protecting the heritage that I have learned. — Ravi Shankar