Yiannis Chryssomallis, known professionally as Yanni, is a Greek composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand that he developed as a child, blending jazz, classical, soft rock, and world music to create predominantly instrumental works.
Yanni Quotes
1. “The greatest things in life – truth, creativity, imagination, love, kindness, compassion -are already inside us, and they’re all free.”
— Yanni
2. “The less you want, the richer you are. The more you need in order to be happy, the more miserable you’ll be.”
— Yanni
3. “No matter what happens in life, never lose sight of who you are.”
— Yanni
4. “All you need is passion. If you have a passion for something, you’ll create the talent.”
— Yanni
5. “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.’”
— Yanni
6. “I really and truly believe that music represents humanity’s soul.”
— Yanni
7. “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.”
— Yanni
8. “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.”
— Yanni
9. “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.”
— Yanni
10. “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.”
— Yanni
11. “I believe that having an open mind is one of the most important qualities we can possess. Once our minds close, we stop evolving.”
— Yanni
12. “Of all the forces that are exerted on us over our lifetime, at least for me, love has been the most powerful of all.”
— Yanni
13. “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.”
— Yanni
14. “My new question was, What do you do when your dreams come true? My answer was: Find new ones.”
— Yanni
15. “I don’t really like to explain my songs.”
— Yanni
16. “I don’t want problems solved for me. I want the fishing rod, not the fish.”
— Yanni
17. “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.”
— Yanni
18. “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.”
— Yanni
19. “The most important battle is one to conquer yourself.”
— Yanni
20. “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.”
— Yanni
21. “Music is like creating an emotional painting. The sounds are the colors.”
— Yanni
22. “Creativity is an inherent human quality of the highest order. When we create, we become more than the sum of our parts.”
— Yanni
23. “You need a mind open to possibility, conditioned to love the creative spirit we all have inside ourselves.”
— Yanni
24. “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.”
— Yanni
25. “Being happy with less is what makes a great human being, not a big house with marble floors, or everyone knowing who you are.”
— Yanni
26. “I’m an optimist by choice not by stupidity.”
— Yanni
27. “There’s a very deep connection among human beings. All we have to do is open our minds to it.”
— Yanni
28. “That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration – it’s true.”
— Yanni
29. “I believe we’re responsible for everything that happens to us.”
— Yanni
30. “You have to give up some of the old so that you can make room for the new.”
— Yanni
31. “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.”
— Yanni
32. “I realize it’s possible in ways both large or small to make a difference in someone’s life.”
— Yanni
33. “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.”
— Yanni
34. “I’d decided to take the risk, and either I’d succeed or else.”
— Yanni
35. “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.”
— Yanni
36. “I truly believe greatness is in all of us. Don’t let anyone talk us out of our truth.”
— Yanni
37. “I’ve always lived in the moment.”
— Yanni
38. “You do good work for a long-enough time, I believed, and you’d get noticed.”
— Yanni
39. “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.”
— Yanni
40. “If you are a professional, the speed with which you react to a potential problem separates the men from the boys.”
— Yanni
41. “Not being able to read and write music is not the same as being illiterate in speech and writing.”
— Yanni
42. “Truth is the number one element in whatever you do with music.”
— Yanni
43. “We’re all capable if we have faith and passion.”
— Yanni
44. “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.”
— Yanni
45. “While most of the music I write is instrumental, I love to use the human voice as another instrument.”
— Yanni
46. “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.”
— Yanni
47. “When it comes down to music, I have no balance. I am 100 percent. It is like full throttle. Five hundred miles an hour.”
— Yanni
48. “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.”
— Yanni
49. “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.”
— Yanni
50. “I just would use any instrument known to man in any combination as long as it describes an emotion.”
— Yanni
51. “Maybe we didn’t have many possessions, but we never went hungry, were cold, or lacked love.”
— Yanni
