25 Quotes by Armin van Buuren

We, as a people, we have a strong need to categorize everything. We put labels on everything and its a totally understandable need because we are animals and we need to understand order and where to fit in.

I think I prefer producing a little more than DJing because you have more freedom, you can make anything you want; it doesn't necessarily have to be four to the floor. You can go more with your mood, or the atmosphere that you're in.

I'm very grateful I went to school to study law, particularly tax law, which really is interesting to me and very useful to me now with my position. Music, however, will always be my number one passion; I like how it connects everyone.

I'm actually sometimes nervous right before a performance, but as soon as I'm on the stage I'm like, 'okay, we're gonna rock this baby.'

Holland was one of the first countries to adopt dance music into their culture, and we were the first ones to have really big raves. I grew up in that atmosphere in the early 1990s, and I was very interested in how dance music was made.

I'm not a jukebox; I don't play exactly what the crowd wants to hear - that doesn't make sense. But, I do look at people requests. At the end of the day, they are the ticket payers and they are the ones that come to the show. If I played music that purely entertains me, I'd play very weird music.

My stage name has always been 'Armin van Buuren.' When I really started DJ'ing professionally, I already had a few U.K. hits under my belt under the name 'Armin', so I couldn't really change that anymore.

The younger generation has embraced Twitter and Facebook massively, and they spend most of their time on there. So if I want to reach new fans or keep in touch with my current, I try to use Twitter and Facebook as much as possible.

In '92 - '93, I was at that age when I was looking for my identity and that's when I found dance music and I really fell in love with it.