100+ A. R. Rahman Quotes on Music, Inspiration, Success, and Life

A. R. Rahman quotes are a reflection of the wisdom and inspiration of the renowned Indian music composer, singer-songwriter, and music producer. His words offer insight into his thoughts on a wide range of subjects, including music, life, love, success, and more.

Whether you’re a music lover or just looking for a bit of motivation, A. R. Rahman’s quotes are sure to leave an impact. Some of his most memorable quotes are featured below.

57 A. R. Rahman Famous Quotes of All Time

Check these A. R. Rahman famous quotes of all time on life, success, and music:

• A good film demands its own score, and if you are a musician, your conscience will never allow you to do something mediocre for a good film.
• Bollywood music is definitely a big part of Indian music and can be a great way to introduce people to the sound. But I hope to continue to incorporate other types of Indian music into my work.
• Certain things are done intentionally opposite – like there’s no sound at the end or synthesizers or all that stuff. Anything that drowns the movie, no. Anything that makes you sit up and watch it, yes. So, some are expecting a very sad theme going on.
• Comedy is a universal language. I grew up watching Nagesh, Surilirajan, Thenga Srinivasan and S.V. Shekhar’s comedies. And, of course, Charlie Chaplin! These artists are so blessed: they can make other people happy.
• I am a big admirer of Sachin and his personality. He is a source of inspiration for the country and just looking at his photographs gives a lot of positive vibes.
• I am a friend when I need to be a friend, a father when I need to be a father, a musician when music calls. I switch roles accordingly.
• I divide criticism into two categories – one coming from those who understand music, who are worthy of being critical because they are knowledgeable about what they are saying; and then there is another category of people who would criticise you anyway, whether your work is good or bad.
• I don’t want to expose my personal life. It’s best that people know me for my work. My family doesn’t want to be surrounded by cameras. We want to live like any other family.
• I follow a simple formula when I compose. I ask myself, ‘What would the audience want to hear?’ and ‘Why would they buy my CDs?’ And the process of answering these questions through music follows. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it backfires.
• I grew up on Bach and Beethoven, and now I’m listening to more modern composers who I can’t even name. But since I’m constantly doing music, it’s difficult to have that quality time to listen to music and do classical stuff.
• 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.
• I like to see a film and then start scoring it in my mind while doing something unrelated. You just grasp a film and start working, and something unpredictable comes out from a third element. The mind, the more active it is, the more productive it is.
• I love great lyrics, and I love the way it could shape a tune into a very unpredictable one, and I also like taking a great melody and putting lyrics into it.
• I think I can get away, sometimes, with walking in the streets and not getting noticed. I like that. I want my work to get noticed, not me. And it’s slowly getting there, which is good.
• I think I would like to discover a new root where people don’t get bored with people singing boring lines but something exciting. That’d be interesting.
• I usually work on a film soundtrack for two years, turning in a song every few months, and that keeps my creative energy high, because I’m constantly rotating projects. The trick is to make sure I don’t work too hard and get exhausted.
• I want to go beyond the restrictions of language, religion and caste, and music is the only thing that allows me to do that.
• I want young Indian composers to be able to do more than just film music. I want to give them the skills that will enable them to create their own palette of sounds instead of having to write formulaic music. It doesn’t matter if they become sound engineers, producers, composers or performers – I want them to be as imaginative as they like.
• I wanted to be part of something bigger.
• I was famous from the age of , and after a while you become immune to it – in a good way. You look at positives and what you can do with it.
• I’m a Sufi Muslim, I would say. I believe in using the medium to create a good vibration because art is so important to society. Some projects I don’t do because I feel that it’s going to create a bad vibe. I don’t do propaganda films that are anti another religion, anti-Muslim or anti-Hindu.
• I’m continuing to learn more about music – it’s an ocean, and you can never really say that you know everything. I’m grateful that I’m still living and making music among the greats.
• If you respect a language and culture, it shows in your work.
• It’s true that I love to connect with my fans on the social networking sites, but I try not to go overboard, ever. I just give people a peek into my mind space, but never bombard them with my tweets.

• My list would be Russia, Morocco, Turkey, and South Africa I’m doing which is somewhere I’ve wanted to go, Australia, Japan maybe, and China, if I have the energy to go and play at all those places.
• My mother insisted that I pursue music. I rented out my father’s musical equipment and earned some money. As a child, I wasn’t sure about a career goal, but I was always fascinated by electronic gadgets, specially musical equipment.
• My mother’s belief in spiritual healers grew stronger after our family went through a rough patch following my father’s death. Sufi saint Karimullah Shah Kadri changed our lives, and all of us converted to Sufism. But it wasn’t an instantaneous decision – it took us years to convert. The change in religion was like washing away the past.
• My music is mostly for the music. And it gives the liberty to do anything which I want. And nobody limits me to one genre of music. 
• Rather than making money I believe in making people happy, all other things are secondary. Money isn’t important, creative satisfaction is.
• Some things are very low profile, but if they excite me creatively, I accept them. Sometimes there are high-profile projects, and you have to do it. We all have human limitations. It is a painful decision to turn things down. Even accepting ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was a decision that I had to sacrifice another project.
• Sometimes I intentionally cut it off. I just want to be in silence, especially when I’m traveling. I watch movies without sound.
• Sometimes, a remix is good because it reaches a whole new generation. But when it gets too much, it’s irritating. Also, the original composer needs to be credited properly.
• That was a very different emotion and I felt Dido’s words would be good and I had a template with my voice in it. Then, when he heard it, he wanted both our voices together in it and that’s the scene when he sees the boy and then he gets charged to go on that final cutting effort.
• That’s a sound design thing but then we wanted to do music that would not disturb it and at the same time drive it.
• The best way would be education and kids and all that stuff and then education and working education comes through. Then I started a music school and the music school now teaches kids to play the violin and the viola.
• The demand in India is to have a hit, which becomes a promotion for the movie and makes people come to the theater. You have five songs and different promotions based on those. But when I do Western films, the need for originality is greater. Then I become very conscious about the writing.
• The idea of music is to liberate the listener and lead him to a frame where he feels he is elevated.
• The institution of marriage works better when there’s a spiritual connection. If you’re marrying just for the sake of the woman, then you may lose interest in each other very soon. When we marry in the interest of the Holy Spirit with the intention of serving God and humanity, then it gives a much larger perspective.
• The more dollars the studio producers put in, the less freedom we have. If the budget hits $m, they get scared – they’ll take the existing score of a successful movie and expect composers to copy it, like wallpaper. The biggest challenge for any composer in Hollywood is to be as creative as possible within those boundaries.
• The more I compose, the more I know that I don’t know it all. I think it’s a good way to start. If you think you know it all, the work becomes a repetition of what you’ve already done. I try to make sure that I don’t repeat my music.
• The search is more important than the destination.
• There have been predictions that the world will come to an end on … But I look around me and I see so much scope for hope.
• There is only one of the two that can reside in our hearts, GOD or ego. If GOD is in ego is out.
• There were basically three themes. One was the sun theme which is the guitar when he’d get sun on his leg and it comes again in the end. And there’s of course the lullaby which Dido sang, If I Rise. And then there’s this driving guitar which is the motivation theme.
• When I initially read the script, it goes inside and comes out different things even without commenting on any stuff. And then, those pieces are taken out and then spread out through the movie.
• When I travel with my kids abroad, I am not myself, but I’m more a father who wants to protect them. Sometimes, I am even aggressive about certain things and get surprised seeing myself like that: for instance, when people want to take pictures of them. I am fine if they want to take my pictures, but they are not public property.
• When you do something with a lot of honesty, appetite and commitment, the input reflects in the output.
• While my mother wanted me to be a musician, I wanted to become an electronic engineer.
• While other creators make a big show of their art Mani Sir makes it look as though anyone can do what he does.
• Wisdom comes from within. Knowledge is acquired and can sometimes put a screen on your wisdom.
• You can’t be without passion. Passion means the possessiveness to be the best.
• Your inner voice is the voice of divinity. To hear it, we need to be in solitude, even in crowded places.
• It is always darkest before the dawn.
• The wise know when to keep silent.
• Be passionate about your craft. 
• Don’t regret the past, learn from it and move on.
• Enjoy the journey instead of hurrying to your destination.

10 A. R. Rahman Quotes in Hindi

Here is a collection of A. R. Rahman quotes in Hindi, sharing his wisdom on various topics:

• मैं इससे भी बड़े किसी कार्य का हिस्सा बनना चाहता हूं।
• जब आप कोई कार्य पूरी ईमानदारी, लगन और प्रतिबद्धता के साथ करते हो तो… किए गए प्रयास हमें उस कार्य के परिणाम में दिखाई देते हैं।
• भटकने से कही ज्यादा महत्वपूर्ण लक्ष्य है।
• सच्चे बनो और अपने अंदर की आवाज को सुनो। बाकी बचे सभी लोग आप की नकल करेंगे।
• कोई पछतावा नहीं ! इसके लिए समय नहीं है; पछतावा करना हमेशा उबाऊ होता है।
• आपके अंदर की आवाज, देवत्व वाणी है। इसे सुनने के लिए हमें एकाग्रचित होने की जरूरत है; यहाँ तक की भीड़ भाड़ वाली जगह पर भी।
• आप को सबसे बड़ी सफलता, सबसे बड़ी निराशा के बाद मिलती है।
• मेरे पूरी जिंदगी में, मुझे प्यार और नफरत में से किसी एक को चुनना पड़ता था। मैं प्यार को चुनता हूं और मैं  आज यहां हूं।
• जितना ज्यादा आप जानते हो उतना ही कम बोलते हो।
• सफल होने पर, यह बहुत जरूरी है कि आप उदार रहे और पैसा या शोहरत का घमंड न करे।

5 A. R. Rahman Quotes on Life

Check these A. R. Rahman quotes on life to understand his thoughts and observations on the meaning and purpose of life:

• After a point of time, when you get success and fame, money and everything, the purpose of life has to be redefined. For me, I think that purpose is to build bridges. Artists can do that very easily, more than politicians.
• Each one of us has our own evolution of life, and each one of us goes through different tests which are unique and challenging. But certain things are common. And we do learn things from each other’s experience. On a spiritual journey, we all have the same destination.
• It’s like driving your car. If you drive too fast on the highway, you will topple, so you better maintain your speed. Life is similar to that, and that’s the way you have to control your head.
• My kids miss me when I’m away, but I don’t mind living out of a suitcase. The U.K., U.S., France, Germany, Iraq… it’s such a thrill meeting people of different cultures, learning about and from them. It’s changed my perception about life, humanity and spirituality.
• I learn from life and I try to give back to life, in a way, whether it’s the thought of the song or whether it’s the approach to the arrangement or anything.

2 A. R. Rahman Quotes on Love

Here are a couple of quotes by A. R. Rahman on love:

• Always choose to love. It’s so much better.
• All my life I have had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I am here.

4 A. R. Rahman Quotes on Success

Check these A. R. Rahman quotes on achieving success and the road to it:

• A musician is a professional, whether he or she is successful or not. The profession itself must be regarded as a stable job.
• Success comes to those who dedicate everything to their passion in life. To be successful, it is also very important to be humble and never let fame or money travel to your head.
• Give it your best and you’re bound to succeed.
• Your best success comes after your greatest disappointment.

8 A. R. Rahman Motivational Quotes

Here are some A. R. Rahman motivational quotes to help you push through tough times and reach your goals:

• Be original and find your inner voice. The rest will follow.
• I am the kind of person who does not like to carry baggage. In fact, I don’t go back and listen to my own music. I believe in closing chapters and moving forward. That’s what gives me peace.
• I believe that whatever comes at a particular time is a blessing from God.
• I have too many responsibilities and principles. There’s no time for ‘guilty’ pleasures.
• I was a common man, and I will always remain a common man. No amount of stardom will ever consume my soul. Money comes, money goes. Fame comes, fame goes. I believe every human being is a celebrity in their own right.
• If there is no criticism, you become lazy. But it should be constructive, and it should be the truth. If it’s biased and there’s no truth in it, then I don’t care about it. If it’s true, it helps me grow.
• In my case dust has become Gold.
• No regrets. There is no time for that. Regret is boring.

15 A. R. Rahman Quotes on Music

• Here are some quotes on music by A. R. Rahman where he shares his thoughts and observations on the power and importance of music in life:
• Beautiful film music can be made relevant to any period.
• 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.
• For me, there is no day or night for music. I often work through the night – without phone calls disturbing me.
• I compose music for films, and by the grace of God, I’ve got a few awards. That’s it.
• I feel blessed and humbled that people have loved my music. Nothing would be possible without their acceptance.
• I like music that is able to stir my soul. My music is a spiritual exercise.
• I love classical music. I love a lot of musicians playing together and the whole culture of that, whether it’s Indian or it’s Western.
• I love the voice – it’s the most perfect instrument ever heard. It’s God given.
• I think music, in my opinion, is not about motivation in the way it’s – it’s not a running base. It’s art. And my whole philosophy of music is different. It’s almost like cooking and serving to people, seeing them smile and enjoying the food, really.
• Music is all about transporting people; speaking a language which languages fail to express.
• Music is language itself. It should not have any barriers of caste, creed, language or anything. Music is one, only cultures are different. Music is the language of languages. It is the ultimate mother of languages.
• Music is the only passion I shamelessly indulge in. However, for recreation I enjoy watching movies. ‘Wizard of Oz’ was the first film I ever saw, followed by the ‘Bond’ movies. I also watch a lot of World cinema through DVDs mostly brought by one of my best friends who’s now based in Toronto.
• Music knows no barrier of age or culture. It isn’t about being politically correct or even making a statement. Music is what appeals to the ears and touches your soul.
• My biggest dream to connect people through music has come true. In a world where there are enough reasons to separate us, the Oscars have unified us.
• So long as you do it truthfully, music is not to be judged.

5 Happy Birthday A. R. Rahman Quotes

Here are some A. R. Rahman birthday quotes to make his birthday even more special:

• Happy birthday, A. R. Rahman! We wish you nothing but the best in this new year as you continue to create some of the most beautiful music of all time.
• Happy Birthday, A.R. Rahman! We hope your day is filled with love, laughter, and music. We wish you many more years of health and happiness in this world, where you have so much to share with the rest of us.
• Happy birthday, A. R. Rahman! We hope that this year is the best one yet for you, and that you continue to inspire us with your work.
• Happy birthday, A. R. Rahman! I’d like to thank you for making the world a better place with your music. You’re an inspiration to us all, and we love you so much.
• Happy birthday, A. R. Rahman! We hope you have a wonderful day today and that it is filled with lots of music and laughter.

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