78 Quotes by Ilaiyaraaja

The challenge for a good musician is to bring out compositions that seem fresh to the listener, even if the listener has heard the song or the composition before.

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

When you listen to a song, it should make you sit up and wonder, 'Hey, what is this!' or give you an inexplicable feeling of joy or relate beautifully to the music in you.

Anyone who holds a pen these days thinks he or she is a poet.

A director should concentrate on his storyline and his characters.

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.

Isn't composing music akin to film direction?

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

For me, my music is part of me, and which is why it seems second nature, and my compositions are instinctive.