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All Quotes by author - Steve Vai

" Acting, at least for me, is very unreal, and when I'm doing it, I actually feel embarrassed. "

" All musicians practice ear training constantly, whether or not they are cognizant of it. If, when listening to a piece of music, a musician is envisioning how to play it or is trying to play along, that musician is using his or her 'ear' - the understanding and recognition of musical elements - for guidance. "

" Along with its enchanting and exquisite melodies, West Side Story has attitude and a tremendous amount of frenetic energy. It's emotional, theatrical and technical. It's everything. "

" A lot of those little things that I really like doing are just moments of cool articulation, just little moments of phrasing that probably go over everybody's head. "

" As a musician, I look for certain things that stimulate me. And what I look for is something that's an evolution on a particular genre that I never heard before. "

" As far as Deep Purple goes, I mean, they're iconic. Their contribution is unquantifiable, and as far as the politics involved in things like awards, you know, I don't think anything, because I know what they mean to me, and I know what they mean to the people who like them. Awards are very politically based. "

" Besides being a guitar player, I'm a big fan of the guitar. I love that damn instrument. "

" Criticism can be devastating. When push comes to shove, we are all very sensitive. "

" Favored Nations is a long-term commitment. Our hope is that those who are passionate about real musicianship will want to hear and own most of our albums. We will set out to attain the same direct relationship with our customers that we have with our artists. "

" History's most treasured musicians were believed in and cultivated to reach their potential. Today, it would be difficult for those musicians to get deals. We have the insight and the tools to identify and bring to fruition the dormant talent that our artists possess. "

" I awake, I meditate, get the kids off to school, go to the gym, go to the Favored Nations office, and usually at around 1 pm I'm home and do music the rest of the day. "

" I can count on one hand the people who are legendary in my book, and Tom Waits is certainly right at the top. It's funny, though: When I tell people that I like Tom's music, it surprises them. "

" I can tell you this: I'm an extremely passionate individual. I try to be careful how I display it because you never know how people are going to take it. "

" I could never overstate the importance of a musician's need to develop his or her ear. Actually, I believe that developing a good 'inner ear' - the art of being able to decipher musical components solely through listening - is the most important element in becoming a good musician. "

" I created this picture of this character who would play the guitar effortlessly, who had no limitations, performing beautiful music, and he moved around with great acrobatic skills, just capturing the audience and being a great entertainer. "

" I designed a guitar for Ibanez and then they started manufacturing it - it's called the Jem - it's 26 years old and I still play it. As a kid I liked Les Pauls and Strats, but they had limitations for the kind of playing I wanted to do. "

" I didn't have any aspirations of becoming famous or successful; in fact I was scared to death of all that. I remember somebody once said that if a rock musician goes on tour, he goes insane. I was very impressionable and I carried this useless weight of fear around with me about going on tour, all because of this thing somebody said. "

" I don't believe in 'greatest'. I believe in favorites. "

" I don't think I approach my songs differently from other artists. You get a big picture of it, and you imagine the song and hear and feel it, and that big picture is like a snapshot, and it comes to you as fast as it takes to click a camera. "

" If I remain true to what's in my heart, that's all the success I need. "

" If you're feeling emotional when you're creating something, it'll sound that way. "

" I have a deep love for life and my fellow human beings. I try to understand everything that everybody does, even if it seems wrong to me. "

" I have an independent record label called Favored Nations on which I released an album by an artist called Johnny A, who plays an arch top Gibson through a Marshall, but the tone is all in his fingers. "

" I knew that I was going to have a life as a musician, because I always felt the pull. I don't remember ever having to make a choice. "

" I know it is common nowadays for artists to start labels but this is a thoroughly constructed vehicle for inspired talent. This is a market that we've been living, breathing and eating for our entire lives - one where a huge void currently exists. Favored Nations is a long-term commitment. "

" I loved the guitar, and I had all of this music in my head. My passion for the guitar and the ideas for what I could create musically were equal. So that's where I was. "

" I loved the idea of recording. The idea of sound-on-sound-recording captured me as a young kid, and once I realized what it was I had an epiphany. Before I was even playing the guitar, I would create these lists of how I would record things and overdub them, like Led Zeppelin song, 'I could put this guitar on this track...' and so on. "

" I'm a big fan of cultural music, and that's how I try to expand my playing, by listening to music that is not conventionally American. "

" I'm always pursuing knowledge; I'm a seeker of spiritual equilibrium - and music is a big part of that. "

" I think every artist subconsciously wants to evolve themselves. Sometimes they get stuck in ruts because of pop culture, peer pressure, stuff like that. But what excites me most is exploring my own musical insights and expanding upon them. "

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