Ravi Shankar Quotes

Ravi Shankar gives a plain-spoken note of gratitude that invites you to enjoy the music beyond the tuning.

13 quotes

1. Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.

2. In our culture we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God.

3. One single raga can be performed for two hours, three hours.

4. 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.

5. There cannot possibly be a god in heaven watching all of this calmly.

6. When people say that George Harrison made me famous, that is true in a way.

7. I love the work of Matisse and Picasso, but I don't have enough millions to own one. And I don't really believe in owning art, anyway.

8. Pop changes week to week, month to month. But great music is like literature.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. I appreciate very much Vilayat Khan, the sitar player, and Bismillah Khan, the shehnai player; and among the tabla players, of course, Alla Rakha, Kishan Maharaja, and all these people.

12. I have great difficulty sitting in the middle of the night and writing. Everything I do comes spontaneous. Sometimes it takes a long time; sometimes it comes just like that.

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