I was using tape loops for dancers and dance production. I had very funky primitive equipment, in fact technology wasn't very good no matter how much…

- Terry Riley

I really didn't have a plan, I just went in and started playing. one of my specialties was to be able to play for a really long time without stopping…

- Terry Riley

Well I guess my music came to prominence around one piece called 'In C' which I wrote in 1964 at that time it was called 'The Global Villages for Sym…

- Terry Riley

I had already done Rainbow in Curved Air and had a big record on CBS. I was launched to have a long career and then I just dropped out and went to In…

- Terry Riley

It seems like we are moving towards something, some kind of point and it is probably going to be an important point in our development or dissolution…

- Terry Riley

Out of doing all that experimentation with sound I decided I wanted to do it with live musicians. To take repetition, take music fragments and make i…

- Terry Riley

The highest point of music for me is to become in a place where there is no desire, no craving, wanting to do anything else. It is the best place yo…

- Terry Riley

Essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just r…

- Terry Riley

The great thing about string quartets is the players are kind of like family. They work really well as a unit, so you can write things that let them …

- Terry Riley