Ravi Shankar

“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.”

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

“I have my own spiritual guru, and I'm so happy, and I feel so satisfied that I might appreciate many other famous gurus, but, you know, I am not attracted that way because I have found the person.”

“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.”

“I enjoy seeing other Indian musicians - old and young - coming to Europe and America and having some success. I'm happy to have contributed to that.”

“I think musicians and actors have all these problems, because of the popularity and the opportunity.”

“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.”

“I was admired by all these hippies, and it was wonderful playing at Monterey and Woodstock, performing for half a million people.”

“I was invited for the first Woodstock. Actually, I started the programme.”

“I have always had an instinct for doing new things. Call it good or bad, I love to experiment.”

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

“My music has a very spiritual background, a sanctity that is almost like worship.”

“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.'”

“To me, you know, from my childhood I always had a fascination for United States.”

“Everybody has a right to like or dislike anything or anyone. From a flower to a flavor to a book or a composition but it is very sad that in our country we actually fight over such things in an unseemly manner.”

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

“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.”

“I started out as a dancer, but gradually became more interested in music.”

“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.”

“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.”