Quotes from Ludovico Einaudi

You can put the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the same category, but the types of music, the colors each band evokes, are completely different. It's the same with Mozart and Beethoven - they express two very different aspects of music.

Arriving at a simple piece of music is a very difficult balance because, in being simple, you could easily be banal, so maybe it's more difficult to write a simple piece of music than a 12-tone piece where no one understands exactly what it is about.

In rock music, you have a big success before you turn 30, then there is sort of a decay. Then there is the reunion, and everyone is waiting to hear what you were doing when you were 20, and nobody cares what you are doing at 50 or 60. But the more I continue, the more I produce, the more I play every year in bigger places.

It is a boring life if you stick to all the rules.

Often, I could not find the range of emotions in classical music which I found in the The Rolling Stones and Hendrix. Listening to Bach, I found a deep spirituality and felt elevated above the human level. Yet the feeling and emotions attached to popular music speak to us far more personally, and I couldn't leave that behind.

I discovered that I didn't want to be strict like a German composer.

You can create something strong in art with a few notes. It is like how Aboriginal drawings have a simplicity that is incredibly rich.

I went to Mali for the first time in 2000, and I met Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko - two of the greatest kora players of our time.

I prefer to play in smaller venues because I like the intimacy, the connection with the audience.

I always get excited by the idea of adventure, of doing something different.

I was completely anxious when I was young.

I love The Edge's guitar style; it is unique. There is an ancient world resonating in his guitar sound.

Sometimes you cannot produce a specific sound you want with, say, a guitar or piano, and you simply need to use electronic elements.

With every musical project, I ended up feeling more enriched by the experience.

You don't have to compose a masterpiece every time, but I think the challenge of art is always searching for something different, searching for a new sensitivity, a new perspective, a new vision.