Yanni, is a Greek keyboardist and composer. He was born in Kalamata, Greece.

Yanni Live at the Acropolis

• I would like to leave you with a couple of thoughts:

A little while back I was watching an interview with one of the astronauts from the Space Shuttle and in this interview he was describing his experiences while he was orbitating the planet and he was saying how beautiful Earth looks from above and he said that much to his surprise, when he was going over Europe, he found that he was having a hard time telling the coutries appart from each other. He said, the reason for that was, that the lines that there are in the maps, are not in the ground, it makes a great point: these lines really don´t exist. They´re made up completely and we perpetuate in the illusion that somehow we´re all different from each other and I think the world would be a much better place if someday we stop pretending that these lines exist and we concentrate in our similarities rather than in our differences. And I just want to remember one more thing, that everything great that has ever happened to humanity since the beginning, has begun as a single thought in someone's mind and if anyone of us is capable of such a great thought then all of us have the same capacity, capability, because we are all the same.

• 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 in Words. Miramax Books. Co-author David Rensin

• 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.

• The less you want, the richer you are. The more you need in order to be happy, the more miserable you'll be.

• 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.

• The most important battle is one to conquer yourself.

• I don't want problems solved for me. I want the fishing rod, not the fish.

• You need a mind open to possibility, conditioned to love the creative spirit we all have inside ourselves.

• 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.

• 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.

• You do good work for a long-enough time, I believed, and you'd get noticed.

• I believe we're responsible for everything that happens to us.

• All you need is passion. If you have a passion for something, you'll create the talent.

• Passion is the fuel.

• 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.

• I believed that anything was possible, or at least because I didn't put together everyone else's "facts" and believe that winning was impossible.

• Endurance is mind over matter.

• I don't have a "you can't do this" voice in my head.

• The engaged mind stays sharp and retains tremendous capacity.

• You have to give up some of the old so that you can make room for the new.

• These changes are part of what keeps me interested and excited. Life won't let me keep coming at it from the same angle.

• If my music can change someone's mood for the better even a little bit, that's amazing.

• I was tough on myself because I feared being a lazy procrastinator and the inevitable result: being mediocre or second best. I always went the extra mile.

• I'd decided to take the risk, and either I'd succeed or else.

• You do good work for a long-enough time, I believed, and you'd get noticed.

• Taking responsibility gives me a sense of control.

• I think we have much more to say about what happens to us than most people believe.

• It's a cliché - but true - that life is not a dress rehearsal. You get to do it once, so do it well.

• It seems that in every culture, however tough life is and however impossible the conditions, there are some resilient human beings who find their way through, who survive and make something of themselves.

• All I had to do was do it.

• I've always lived in the moment.

• Being happy with less is what makes a great human being, not a big house with marble floors, or everyone knowing who you are.

• Nobody could believe in me the way I believed in myself.

• 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.

• We're all capable if we have faith and passion.

• My new question was, What do you do when your dreams come true? My answer was: Find new ones.

• On the plane home I remember thinking that I am who I am because I have faith in myself, and it has always been the possibility of emotionally rewarding the experiences that has encouraged me to gamble on myself; those experiences have made all that I do worthwhile.

• Of all the forces that are exerted on us over our lifetime, at least for me, love has been the most powerful of all.

• That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true.

• The more doubt you have, the less likely it is that the creation will come to life.

Attributed

• I truly believe greatness is in all of us. Don't let anyone talk us out of our truth.

• No matter what happens in life, never lose sight of who you are.