Jean Michel Jarre

I consider music like a mirage in the desert. You're obsessed with the ideal piece of music, and the more you think you're getting closer, it's not there.

With electronic music, you are not confined to the acoustics of a concert-hall, and that inspired me to bring my performances outdoors.

For me, electronic music is like cooking: it's a sensual organic activity where you can mix ingredients.

I thought we had opposite visions of electronic music. Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk had a very robotic, mechanical approach. I had a more impressionist vision - a Ravel/Debussy approach.

Saying that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.

The major rock instruments and classical instruments were designed for performance, for sharing the music with an audience, and then later people put microphones on them and recorded them. But for electronic music, the opposite was true - they're designed in laboratories, and later, we tried to put them on stage.

If music is to continue to support the livelihoods of artists, it cannot be taken without the permission of artists.

What is very interesting when talking about electronic music is that - I would say that rock and roll is called the ethnic music born in America that invaded the world. Electronic music is certainly kind of ethnic music born in countries like Germany and France that has invaded the world.

From the outside, being an artist seems like a dream life, but there are much darker aspects to it.

The difference between noise and music is in what the musician does with the sounds.

I was obsessed with the idea that no two sounds on 'Oxygene' should ever be exactly the same. I wanted a heartbeat feel, something human.

When I began making electronic music, the only thing I was thinking about was creating music that I really liked. I didn't think about what effect it would have; I was busy doing it.