Yanni Quotations

A simple life is good with me. I don't need a whole lot. For me, a T-shirt, a pair of shorts, barefoot on a beach and I'm happy.

New Age is a very small box. It was a term that was brought in by the music industry to classify music that is neither jazz, classical, pop or rock. They didn't know what to call it or what to do with it. So they threw it all together under this one name.

I don't like to define my music. To me, music is pure emotion. It's language that can communicate certain emotions and the rhythms cuts across genders, cultures and nationalities. All you need to do is close your eyes and feel those emotions.

Actually, with 'Truth of Touch' I wasn't even intending on making an album. I was just having fun. I had about a six-month period of down time, and I'm not very good at sitting around. So I kind of started going into the studio and having fun with new core mendin sounds.

If you are a professional, the speed with which you react to a potential problem separates the men from the boys.

I dread naming pieces of music because being instrumental, most of the time the songs that I write are instrumental, I want the listener to make up their own story as to what it is and get the emotion pure without using logic.

Creativity is an inherent human quality of the highest order. When we create, we become more than the sum of our parts.

Truth is the number one element in whatever you do with music.

When it comes down to music, I have no balance. I am 100 percent. It is like full throttle. Five hundred miles an hour.

Music is art, and once you become an artist, you need to learn how to accept criticism.

When you hear 'Truth of Touch,' I believe you recognize that it is me; however it's not the typical Yanni album.

There is no gender to my music. There's no male or female voice, no trite lyrics or poetry. It's much more abstract, so it lives with you longer.

I don't really like to explain my songs.

The good news is when you open up in Vegas, you have a lot of friends, because they all come over to see your opening night.

While most of the music I write is instrumental, I love to use the human voice as another instrument.

Not being able to read and write music is not the same as being illiterate in speech and writing.

You accomplish what you want to accomplish. I just don't ever want to hurt anybody doing it.

With instrumental music, it is traditionally hard to get exposure.

I just would use any instrument known to man in any combination as long as it describes an emotion.

I love the road, and I love coming in contact with the fans. They talk to me and that's irreplaceable. But when I get tired, I head to the studio and I am in there for a long time.

My music is based on melody and when I play the piano, it's as if I'm singing with them. When you try to transform that into a vocal, there was very little adjustment.

Being an athlete helps me get those grandiose emotions of pleasure and pain that are involved in sports.

I do listen to a lot of music, but I don't listen when I'm writing.

It has never been necessary for me to learn how to read music.

When you do music concerts at Taj Mahal and the Acropolis, you have to be careful about your performance being appropriate with the place that surrounds you. It has to be appropriate to the culture - it should fit the building behind you, the environment you are playing it in and the culture of that place.

I am so happy that I didn’t go to school and I didn’t have anyone to tell me how to position my fingers on the piano correctly.

And going into my studio at night, particularly at night when everybody's asleep, is just a total pleasure for me.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons that I continue to have reinforced is to always have faith and believe in yourself. To never lose sight of who you are and to know yourself.

It’s a cliché - but true - that life is not a dress rehearsal. You get to do it once, so do it well.

Ever since I left Greece more than two decades ago, it has been my dream to return and perform at the Acropolis. This project took more than a year and a half to plan and accomplish, and I would like to thank my band and crew and the scores of people involved in helping my dream become a reality.

In the English language, I can love my car, or my house, or my daughter, or traveling, but in Greek and how I grew up, love is described with different words.

That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true.

Well, besides being entertained, I’d like to move them emotionally. I mean I really want to uplift them. I want to look down at the audience, and this is personal experiences now I’m going to tell you. It’s like you look down at the audience and see people smiling, crying, hugging each other. I want them on their way home to feel empowered like they can do anything.

It’s like flight, you’re flying… When you’re hitting something that’s turning you on, you get goose bumps. It’s a rush. It’s very exciting and that’s what I’m hoping to do to the audience.

I learned from my parents to do my best to not react to negative emotions. I try to think about what has happened and find the lessons that can be learned from these difficult experiences. I try to deal with these negative emotions right away because, if they stay inside, they can hurt and do a lot of damage. I release them as soon as possible so I can be free.

It’s really strange, but they speak to me — the notes and the chords. So when I hear other people’s music, I can feel the composer. Whoever created that, I can see in their soul.

When I create music, it is a reflection of my soul, my experiences in life and my relationships with other people and cultures. Psychology, and understanding who we are as people in this world, is present in almost every creative thought I have.

Symphonies can generate a tremendous amount of sounds, beauty, and emotion. That is part of their human feel and sweetness. Keyboards, on the other hand, give us access to millions of sounds. When I put the two together, the result is unique, and it’s not only pleasing to the ear, but produces emotional responses that neither of the two can achieve on their own.

Continuing to create music and perform is so important to me for many reasons. I love the interaction and connection I get with people when we perform live. Nothing is more rewarding for me.

Going to the school to meet the visually impaired was special. I thought I was inspiring them. I was thinking what I could possibly say to inspire them. Instead of me inspiring them, I felt they inspired me. They showed me how much courage they have, and how hard these teachers are working for these children. They made me feel like I don’t have any problems in life. It gave me uplift. They made me feel so great.

I tend to stay up very late at night, so I wake up later in the day. This allows me to be in the middle of my workday when I am onstage at night.

You have to give up some of the old so that you can make room for the new.

I don't want problems solved for me. I want the fishing rod, not the fish.

The live concerts are everything and I’m very grateful that most of my career, I’m a live artist, I’ve been doing this. So I’ve traveled quite a lot, played in - I never stopped playing.

Perhaps the most important contribution to me being centered in the midst of this chaos is my daughter, Krystal Ann. I am very lucky because she works with me and is responsible for many aspects of the business on the marketing side of my career. This allows us to travel together and experience life on the road, seeing the world. Having family with me is very important and grounding.

I'd decided to take the risk, and either I'd succeed or else.

Sometimes the knowledge you've been given in school or by an elder - 'this is just the way it is' - keeps you from accomplishing because it traps you in a box in your mind and limits your freedom to deliver.

Maybe we didn't have many possessions, but we never went hungry, were cold, or lacked love.

There are so many messages and lessons that I have been taught that I would want to share with people. Perhaps one that is very present in my mind now is the concept that we are all living on this one tiny planet that we call Earth. It is very small and is not getting any bigger, but the amount of people living on this planet continues to grow at a rapid rate.

I don't dwell in the past; I don't wallow in old events and emotions. I don't waste time on regret. No use going over and over the details of what already happened.

My father once said, ‘If the whole world wants to go left and you feel like going right, go right. You don’t have to follow. You don’t have to make a big deal about which way you’re going. Just go. It’s very easy.’

We need to learn to get along with each other and learn how to help one another.

I realize it's possible in ways both large or small to make a difference in someone's life.

The less you want, the richer you are. The more you need in order to be happy, the more miserable you’ll be.

We need to learn how to love each other. If we cannot do that, then we need to learn to respect one another. If we can't manage to do that, then we must learn to tolerate each other.

A little bit of fear means you are doing something worth doing--you are stretching...You are going outside your immediate grasp.

I believe that having an open mind is one of the most important qualities we can possess. Once our minds close, we stop evolving.

I believe we're responsible for everything that happens to us.

My mother loved everyone she came in contact with. She always shared her love and was able to heal those around her with it.

Everything great that has ever happened to humanity has begun as a single thought in someone's mind, and if anyone of us is capable of such a thought, then all of us has the same capacity, capability, because we're all the same.

I’ve always lived in the moment.

We're all capable if we have faith and passion.

The love I have for my daughter is completely unconditional, and it is the most important love in my life.

Music is like creating an emotional painting. The sounds are the colors.

I know that our world is going through a very difficult time right now, but I will never lose my faith in humanity, and our incredible ability to overcome just about anything.

You need a mind open to possibility, conditioned to love the creative spirit we all have inside ourselves.

My new question was, What do you do when your dreams come true? My answer was: Find new ones.

As I understand life at different levels, I can use music to express what these levels feel like to me. Hopefully the listener can be transported to this understanding by listening to the music.

Being happy with less is what makes a great human being, not a big house with marble floors, or everyone knowing who you are.

I truly believe greatness is in all of us. Don’t let anyone talk us out of our truth.

I think that love is very important and exists in many forms for all of us.

The most important battle is one to conquer yourself.

I really and truly believe that music represents humanity’s soul.

No matter what happens in life, never lose sight of who you are.

I have been fortunate to have a career that has allowed me to travel the world and come in contact with many different cultures and people.

All you need is passion. If you have a passion for something, you'll create the talent.

You do good work for a long-enough time, I believed, and you'd get noticed.

I'm an optimist by choice not by stupidity.

The studio work that I do allows me to connect with people around the world. You can't perform live for everyone, so having the ability to share my creative vision with others is very important to me as well.

Of all the forces that are exerted on us over our lifetime, at least for me, love has been the most powerful of all.

Sometimes we get caught up in our troubles and our problems and we let life slip away, but life is precious, all of life, and one must try to take in as much of it as possible.

My goal is to connect with people emotionally. I take life’s experiences and translate them into music — music that hopefully creates an impact on the listener.

In Greek, we do not use just one word for love. We have many words that are specific to each type of love.

My father taught me that one of the most important abilities in life is to be able to take the pain and persevere, and for years this lesson had served me well.

The greatest things in life - truth, creativity, imagination, love, kindness, compassion -are already inside us, and they're all free.

I tend to avoid writing music about initial reactions to situations, like frustration or anger. I’d rather wait till I go through the problem, and write about the learning that took place.

If you leave yourself open to learning, then you can benefit and enjoy an incredibly rewarding and insightful experience. These experiences are the driving force in my life, and they keep me alive and inspire not only my music but also my everyday life.

There’s a very deep connection among human beings. All we have to do is open our minds to it.

Focused will is incredible. If you have a dream and you don’t give up no matter what obstacles come up, then life’s problems will fall away and you will get what you want. It happens. It works.

Whether a person is spiritual or not, we all seek to get away from the stress, anger, and anxiety of everyday life. Some people drink, do drugs, or do worse to escape, and they hurt themselves in the process. Some people listen to music, mine included, and feel better.