100 Quotes by Ryuichi Sakamoto

Conceptually, I am open to mistakes - errors, actually. I do play lots of wrong notes while I am making some music, and a mistake or a wrong note is like a gift for me: 'Oh, wow, an unknown sound or an unknown harmony. I didn't know about this.'

Music has become something different from the past, when it was one hundred per cent live. Throughout the twentieth century, it was recorded, and the medium adjusted.

When we went to see the first rough cuts of 'Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence,' I fell to the floor because my acting was so bad. I wrote music to compensate for my bad acting.

I'm not the ambassador of Japan or Japanese culture.

I hope to record the perfect album, my masterpiece, before I die.

I loved the freedom of improvised music.

I was born and grew up in Tokyo, so I didn't know about nature.

For making music for myself, I just need to be happy. I'm the producer, the director, and the listener.

The piano is the closest instrument to me in my life, so it's just natural to play my pieces on the piano.