Ravi Shankar quotes

Ravi Shankar was an Indian sitar virtuoso and composer, widely recognized for bringing Indian classical music to international audiences. His collaborations with Western musicians, most notably with George Harrison of The Beatles, helped bridge cultural gaps and inspire global appreciation for Indian music. He profoundly influenced both traditional and modern music across the world. Here are 12 of his quotes:

There are thousands of ragas, and they are all connected with different times of the day, like sunrise or night or sunset. It is all based on 72 of what we call 'mela' or scales. And we have principally nine moods, ranging from peacefulness to praying, or the feeling of emptiness you get by sitting by the ocean.

Ravi Shankar

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.

Ravi Shankar

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

Ravi Shankar

The magic happens only when the artist serves with love and the listener receives with the same spirit.

Ravi Shankar

Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.

Ravi Shankar

An hour of the real thing. Ravi Shankar, a wonderful virtuoso, played his own Indian music to us at the radio station. Brilliant, fascinating, stimulating, wonderfully played. Unbelievable skill and invention.

Ravi Shankar

Without...Yehudi Menuhin, the West may not have found Indian classical music and decades later...thanks to Menuhin's chance meeting and later lasting friendship with the master sitarist Ravi Shankar, the Wets witnessed the sublimity that the merging of the Western and Indian classical music could produce.

Ravi Shankar

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

Ravi Shankar

Pop changes week to week, month to month. But great music is like literature.

Ravi Shankar

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.

Ravi Shankar