When I was very young, there was a lot of music at home, mostly jazz. I was walking around singing and pretending I was in bands from a very young age. But the first song that was really personal to me was 'Blue Suede Shoes'.

Look at music like gaming. You monetize the game to all the people who are most engaged. I wanted to bring that theory and thinking to music.

I feel like my kind of music is a big pot of different spices. It's a soup with all kinds of ingredients in it.

I never gave up on music, and I feel like music never gave up on me.

Music changes, life changes. It's like Jay Z said: 'If people like the old Jay, then go listen to the old Jay.' I always heard that, but never understood it.

I love having music just to chill to and also to rev me up a bit.

And whether you're drawn to gospel music or church music or honky-tonk music, it informs your character and it informs your talent.

Some of the greatest blues music is some of the darkest music you've ever heard.

I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.

Because of the Thames I have always loved inland waterways - water in general, water sounds - there's music in water. Brooks babbling, fountains splashing. Weirs, waterfalls; tumbling, gushing.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

Music is my way out. I keep things locked up and never say anything. I guess in order to say something to one person, I have to sing it to a couple of thousand. It doesn't make for healthy relationships.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

There are times pop music is the end result when I'm in the studio, but I don't really go in and say, 'Today I am going to make a pop song,' but it can happen.

'The Beatles' did whatever they wanted. They were a collection of influences adapted to songs they wanted to write. George Harrison was instrumental in bringing in Indian music. Paul McCartney was a huge Little Richard fan. John Lennon was into minimalist aggressive rock.

You have the sun, you have the moon, you have the air that you breathe - and you have the Rolling Stones!

It's my job to have ups and downs because it makes good music.

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously.

If you make music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings.

When you're a front man for a band, there's nowhere to hide. It took me a long time to get used to that. But music is my first love. I started singing when I talked.

Even in the most beautiful music there are some silences, which are there so we can witness the importance of silence.

There is such an advantage to self-releasing. If you can do it yourself, it's the best way to go. In Europe and the rest of world outside the U.S., I have licensed my music to labels. But it's amazing because I still own all the masters. I didn't have to give up any of those rights. I have 100 percent creative control.

I just remember falling in love with the old Chris Brown music, where it was, like, that real R&B, and I love the radio smashes he's put out since then, but I go back to his older music for that R&B.

There's girls that grew up like me and even worse, and they need to know that there is someone out there that can give them hope with my music. It's about inspiring people and helping people.

As a musician, you are all the music that you absorb into your mind; that just subconsciously connects.

Every time I sit for a song, I feel I am finished. It's like a beggar sitting waiting for God to fill your bowl with the right thought. In every song, I ask help from Him. Everybody around is so good, so to create music that will connect with so many people is not humanly possible without inspiration.

I joined the Madras Christian College but dropped out after three months. Telugu music director Ramesh Naidu asked me to assist him, and I did so for over a year. I did think of rejoining college, but by then, I was discovering the musician in me. I worked with Illaya Raja and Raj Koti and soon shifted to commercials. This led to movie offers.

Everyone I look up to is bringing me into the tech world. You'd be surprised by all the music people in it, invested in it.

Every day I feel different about music, but what never changes is my love for it.

I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing 'chick' music for teenage girls or something. I think, if anything, the press kind of, because of my gender and my age, tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It's part of the cultural dynamic, I guess.

When words leave off, music begins.

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.

I just sort of try to be a good person; try to write music that lifts people and makes me feel good to sing.

Music fills in for words a lot of the time when people don't know what to say, and I think music can be more eloquent than words.

Music is a lady that I still love because she gives me the air that I breathe. We need all sorts of nourishment. And music satisfies and nourishes the hunger within ourselves for connection and harmony.

Punk is not just the sound, the music. Punk is a lifestyle.

The flame that is naturally clear always gives the most light and heat. If I could blend my talent for poetry and music into one, the light would burn still clearer, and I might go far.

I think my music's more disturbing than Tupac's - or at least I thought some of the themes of 'The Downward Spiral' were more disturbing on a deeper level - you know, issues about suicide and hating yourself and God and people and everything else.

I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it.

I have a very eclectic taste when it comes to music.

I think Sean Parker damaged the music business with Napster.

Music is always on. Not at work. But at home, everything always has to have a soundtrack.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

I like myself still kind of being... because DJs used to be the background guy - the guy who was just doing the music - I see myself more as that guy than being on the stage.

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.

Music is my main goal, but I'm not going to rush a record out. There are so many actors who have come out with albums these days. I don't want to do it because it's the thing to do. I want to wait until the time is right.

I'm proud to be a railway modeler. It means more to me to be on the cover of Model Railroader than to be on the cover of a music magazine.

Things like 'mad as a hatter' or 'grinning like a Cheshire cat', are so powerful that music and songs incorporate the imagery. Writers, artists, illustrators, a lot of them have incorporated that.

I just want to work with the big people and the people who make great music.

It is a coincidence that Mathangi is the Goddess of Music and the spoken word, which can be rap.