A. R. Rahman Quotes

My mum wanted me to be a doctor like my dad, and at 7, I really wanted to be a politician, and I managed in my mind to combine the two.

When I was a child, writing was the worst possible choice of a career in my family.

Since I stayed in a colony where either one was an engineer or a scientist, everybody thought I would be a scientist. This was the expectation everybody had apart from my parents. Honestly, I, too, wanted to be a scientist. I think it was the way Dad would explain us scientific theories and concepts that made the subject more intriguing.

My parents always knew that I loved music. They just didn't think I'd try to make it a career. They thought I'd be a painter or an art teacher or something like that.

I wanted to be a writer, and my mother was like, 'No, why don't you become a lawyer?' That sort of thing.

A lot of the Egyptian community is made up of doctors, pharmacists and engineers. All throughout high school I took sciences, but eventually I chose to pursue what I truly want to do.

I once asked my father what he wanted me to be. To my horror, he said, 'sociologist.'

And I think that's why I was going to be a musician. I was very rebellious. And I didn't want to be an actor. My father used to say to me you should be an actor if you want to be in the arts.

My dad is a bank president and my mom was an accountant and they didn't think that seeking the life of a freelance writer was very practical, you see. Of course, I was just as determined to do it.

My parents had chosen the medical profession for me. I even studied a few semesters at St Xavier's College, but at the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a musician like my father.

Even after I'd published three books and had been writing full-time for twenty years, my father continued to urge me to go to law school.

I'm not like my siblings, who are musical but can turn their hands to other professions! I'd always wanted to be involved in music - I'm a great believer in doing things that fulfil you.

There were a lot of choices to make and I always picked artist. I never once picked doctor, lawyer, firemen or something like that. It was always artist.

My father wasn't absolutely delighted. He wanted me to become a lawyer. I studied law, but I thought the shoe business was more exciting.

Playing music has always felt very natural. You know, you do try to do other things, and you do learn lessons that way, but, eventually - well... if your dad is a plumber, you become a plumber. It's the family business, and I felt like I was taking over the family business.

I wanted to be a vet, a nurse, a chef - I mean, anything but the music industry. But once I hit high school, the bug really bit me. You can't deny where you come from and what's in your genes, and music definitely was. I haven't looked back since.

My parents played the radio, but music was never an obsession or something that I thought I could call a career.

Unlike my mother, who was unashamedly delighted when I decided to become an actor, I always feel that my father, had he lived longer, might have been a touch disapproving of some of my career - I think he might have tutted a bit at 'Men Behaving Badly.'

My parents wanted me to be a lawyer.

Everyone always says, 'You must have always wanted to be just like your dad.' But my dad's career had nothing to do with my journey.

My dad wanted me to be a businessman, but I felt that wasn't for me.

I've always wanted to serve my country in some capacity. But many years ago, my father said he wanted me to run the brewery and he'd do politics.

My mother really wanted me to go to school and to university, but I was adamant that I wanted to be a football player.

I thought I had everything going for me. I wasn't listening to nobody. And my dad was like, 'Uh-uh, you can't make money from music. You have to be a doctor, a lawyer, engineer. Something that's going to do something for this world. Music doesn't do anything.' And I had to fight that, his passion, and fight the society that I was from.

I'm not interested in hiding from the fact that my parents are actors. I'm proud of them! It's very ordinary to pursue a career that your parents do, but when it's in the public eye, it becomes a complicated thing.