Top 40 James Newton Howard Quotes

Tchaikovsky was one of the great melody writers of all time.

I would say, generally speaking, though it is not always the case, comedy is probably the least gratifying for most composers because it is more specific about what the music needs to do.

Every movie you score you hope is unlike anything you have done before. You are always trying to not sound like yourself.

One of my biggest goals in writing the music for ‘Fantastic Beasts’ was to create memorable melodies. J.K. Rowling’s world has always had a great musical legacy and I was hoping to continue that tradition.

What happens with a good score is, somehow the composer manages to cast himself or herself in the role of the protagonist. And then you write from their perspective.

Like most people, I hate public speaking.

I think every classically trained film composer feels to some extent, maybe on some level, that they took the low road, that they could have maybe pursued a career in the concert music world, and perhaps been involved in a higher quality of music.

I never like to conduct, quite honestly, because you have to be a bit of a dictator and it’s exhausting.

Any composer should be able to synthesize the primary feelings that the characters are going through in the movie.

I believe very strongly in having melodic hooks, whether they’re short or intricate, that you really remember in a movie.

Something different happened to me when I started to write music to images. It was a feeling of excitement and connection and a sense of being in the right place that I never had before.

I tend to avoid interviews, I don’t have a publicist and fear of failure is still very much alive in my personal life.

I was a piano performance major at USC. I left before I graduated because I realized at some point I wasn’t going to be a concert pianist and I was too attracted to popular music.

I feel the first ten years of my career I really didn’t care what the director said because I felt so arrogant. I was so certain about what should happen. But then I became a good listener.

The first ‘Hunger Games’ movie was one of those rare films to combine epic storyline, memorable characters and challenging musical opportunities.

I am delighted just to work on a good movie, no matter what the medium is.

With any movie at all the challenge lies in the storytelling.

I have so much regard for the art of conducting. It’s easy to look not so good up there.

I loved working with Chris Nolan. I love working with Lawrence Kasdan. Dan Gilroy. Francis Lawrence I love.

Immersion in a movie over months and months will give you what you just can’t get in the same way over a four- or six-week period.

It’s easy for me to write a quasi-virtuosic orchestral score. What is harder is to do that and say, all right, that works, but how else can you do it?

I hate bad reviews, so yeah, every now and then I think, ‘Boy I hope everybody really likes this and thinks this theme is good.’ You can’t help but do that. I think we all are, or at least I am, reduced to a schoolboy seeking approval.

I think to do anything out of one’s comfort zone, there has to be some aspect of it that feels inspiring and challenging in a positive way.

In most multiple composer situations, you find it because someone got nervous about the music and insisted that somebody else come in and help.

I just go from one movie to the next and try not to get fired.

I started studying piano at the age of four.

Becoming a father allowed me to become a much better composer, because it allowed me to have tremendous patience. I have much more tolerance for opposing opinions, short attention spans, changes of heart. And faith in the future.

Well, the first two movies of any size that I did were a movie called ‘Everybody’s All American’ that Taylor Hackford directed – I was pretty diva on that – and then ‘Pretty Woman,’ which is probably my first real breakthrough.

There’s much more music now in movies than there used to be. Maybe sometimes there’s too much music.

That’s what keeps me going: those moments of solving a problem, of what happens to a movie when the right music is added – and what happens to the music when the movie’s working with it.

Music has been of central importance to Disney movies for as long as I can remember. To contribute to that legacy, is a great honor.

I’ve been lucky to have been given opportunities in different genres. And most of the time I’ve felt that the exploration, the composing, the collaboration, was a move forward.

I’m a melody guy. To me, that’s a musical souvenir people take from a movie. They remember a theme or a feeling, and if they’ve had a good or bad experience it evokes that sensation whenever they hear it again.

I really don’t think about the Oscars.

Music can help uncover that tone that’s in the fabric of the movie. Sometimes it’s very plain to see, sometimes it’s not.

I joined Elton John’s band in ’75. He not only allowed me to play the electronic keyboard on his albums, he also let me do the orchestrations. Then I left the band and started producing records. I was not really a popular kind of hit music guy. I was attracted to more esoteric things.

I like to pace myself at about two minutes of music a day. With ‘Waterworld’ it was closer to five minutes a day, which is uncomfortable and slightly terrifying.

I absolutely loved ‘The New World.’

One day I was watching some pundits screaming at each other on a news show. It suddenly reminded me of this painting on my wall, of balloons with goofy faces rising – pundits screaming at each other and arguing off into the ether.

There’s a sadness about love, a melancholy and a sadness about beauty. It’s just part of the human experience of living on this planet.