Composer Identity Quotes

I prefer the word 'musician.' I'm a musician and a composer. I have a problem with the word 'artist.' I don't know if it's the same in English, but words like 'artist' and 'star' put people on a pedestal, which is not really good for my brain.

People sort of know me for that solo piano music I did.

I want people to know about all the kinds of music that I write. Some believe I just write film scores, which is not true.

I've been called a minimalist composer for more than 30 years, and while I've never really agreed with the description, I've gotten used to it.

I am compared to other classical musicians, but most of them perform songs from other people, and most of those composers belong to another era.

In India, I have been called a 'destroyer.' But that is only because they mixed my identity as a performer and as a composer. As a composer I have tried everything, even electronic music and avant-garde. But as a performer I am, believe me, getting more classical and more orthodox, jealously protecting the heritage that I have learned.

I'm still getting used to being called a composer. A poseur, maybe.

My first films, 'Tamizhan' and 'Whistle,' showcased me in a different light - as an urbane composer.

I'm the same composer since my first film.

To call somebody a Jewish composer is obviously redundant.

I'm really drawn to West Coast composers and I think it has a little something to do with looking across the Pacific instead of looking across the Atlantic.

I'm not an intellectual composer.

Just recently, I thought about how maybe I should have kept using the synthesisers more after 'Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence'; then, I would have been a more unique soundtrack composer than I am now. It could have been my signature. But then, probably, Bertolucci would not have offered me to compose for his films.