Vijay Iyer quotes:

Lately I feel being political is also about the company I keep and the ideas I put forward. When I do a curate a program or do a workshop, I want to make it intergenerational; I want to have women on the faculty and also among the students.

My music is always called "cerebral." It is a way of saying I'm Asian, and therefore everything I do is brainy.

I want to make sure that I represent a variety of backgrounds and that represents the reality out here in the world.

If you look at my collaborations, it is very much in line with all these others in the sense that it is a building of community, particularly among artists of color. This is what I learned from the example of elder African-American artists, which is where it is all coming from; to refuse to be silenced.

It is one thing to be a virtuoso, but a different thing to play with compassion.