Top 40 Ilaiyaraaja Quotes

Music reigns supreme. It does not need a visual prop. While listening to a number, do you enjoy the tune, or do you enjoy it because you imagine someone singing it? In fact, quite a few hits of mine are from films that no one has heard about. The songs still rule, though.

I think of the Tamil poet Subrahmanya Bharati every day, and he is an inspiration in my musical creations.

In India, most people are not aware or are unconcerned about copyright laws. This has proved disastrous for the music fraternity.

Many great composers have died in poverty. I have not faced hardships, like having to struggle for food, thanks to reasonable producers.

Composing is an emotional thing.

The Gen X thinks history is a waste of time. This is instant world where only readymade things are valued.

I come from a small village and have had no formal training in music or any classes from the masters of Indian classical music.

I always felt music to be universal and undifferentiated – Western classical, folk, Carnatic or Hindustani and so on.

Good music is made with the help of many musicians who express their joy in the swaras.

My music is religion, and my religion is music. They are one.

Music is as vast as the sky, the oceans, the universe.

In my early years, I would be in the studio till 11 P.M. Come home, have bath and dinner, and write music till 2 A.M. I would wake up by 4, sit down to do my music, and be at the studio at sharp 7 A.M.

Only I hold the right to all my songs.

My parents were simpletons. Everyday living was a big thing in that small village where I was born. They had no clue about music.

One could work on a lot of albums such as ‘Thiruvasagam in Symphony,’ but with issues such as illegal downloading from the Internet and piracy, it is difficult.

Your understanding of music depends on your capacity to perceive it.

Taking legal action against pirates is a headache for artists like me.

In music, there is no country; there is no time.

I truly believe that music or art, in general, is the only thing that can unify a world that is plagued by war and violence, and I believe that it should be taken to more people.

Music has the power to divert the violent minds.

Can someone do music for 24 hours at a stretch and never get tired? It’s me. Because I don’t ‘work’. I enjoy what am doing. It’s not like a regular job.

My commercial viability, coupled with my reputation, gives me enough freedom to assert my right as a composer.

Traditional musical forms like ‘Parai Isai’ and ‘Villupattu’ are unique, and they need to be protected and nurtured.

When you see the ocean and the infinite, it empties your mind.

Till 2010, there was one national award for Best Music Direction. I have received it thrice – for ‘Sagara Sangamam,’ ‘Sindhu Bhairavi,’ and ‘Rudraveena.’

No saint in the world lived like the great saint Ramana Maharishi. They say Jesus Christ was resurrected and rose again from the dead. But there’s no proof of it. Ramana Maharishi is the only Mahan who has resurrected in life, and that, too, at the age of 16.

My practice is to take a sheet, write the song number in the left side, name of the production, and time of recording. Only when I have to fill the name of the singer do we look out to see who is free. When the singers we want aren’t there, I end up singing it! That’s how I became a singer.

You may go to the temple for mental peace. But you may be distracted there and forget the purpose of your visit. But this does not happen when you hear good music.

Western, jazz, folk, or tribal music, whatever the form, they all have the same sapta swaras as the basis.

Music is a continuous process. You evolve with every song.

Genuine music, to me, is the one which has no purpose. It should be as natural and as purposeless as the flow of the river.

Thyagaraja was not a professional musician. He did not sing for situations. He was music himself.

Government should take necessary steps to add music into school syllabus and impart knowledge to the students.

Music is not a subject to be discussed. It has to be experienced.

Right from the 17th century, composers who have taken up music as their means of livelihood went through a hard time financially. They were paid only for commissioned works and public performances. And, when their music became famous, orchestras in other cities and countries would pay a small amount to copy the music.

I consider all women as mother. I compose poems for any female considering her as mother.

In whosever presence you find peace of mind, devoid of fear, only that person can be your guru.

A good mind should tell the difference between noise and music.

Any form of classical music is made for youth.

People forget themselves in my music. It’s amazing.