My music is always called "cerebral." It is a way of saying I'm Asian, and therefore everything I do is brainy. — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
What I find the challenge is with working with, say, digital machines - performing electronic music - is that when we play instruments there's… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
I use are provisional terms, and they usually put any proper nouns in critical distance. I'm in a tradition of people who resist naming,… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
It is one thing to be a virtuoso, but a different thing to play with compassion. — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
This is the last sentence of my dissertation: "What is soul in music if not powerfully embodied human presence?" — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
I find myself skeptical of music that forces you to have a certain experience, emotional reaction, or specific constructive arc of experience. But performers… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
In the 1990s I got to play in a group that played in prisons in California. We would play in maximum security wards. It… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
I want to make sure that I represent a variety of backgrounds and that represents the reality out here in the world. — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
I've realized that a lot of people come to me because of what's called identity. In the sense of "he's like me" - more… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
Beyond that, it gets down to the nuts and bolts of discipline - not a tradition or genre, I don't care about that, actually… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
Music is made of what we do when we move, and we can only move in certain ways, in certain ranges of tempo because… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
The sense of having to be the best at everything gets in the way of anybody doing anything. I put all that aside; it's… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
I like the idea of the objecthood of music being destabilized by process and things like improvisation. That's what empowers us; that's how we… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
I think what music can offer is the feeling of forward motion, also the feeling of accumulation of information, of sensations, of feelings, like… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
A successful relationship is not about two people staring into each other's eyes, it's about two people looking ahead together. I think in order… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share
