Quotes from Ramin Djawadi

That's what I like: to kind of get up and start working right away in the morning.

I always really wanted to do film scoring, largely because I hate writing lyrics. I just won't do it. I need help with the words.

I'm actually really good at keeping secrets.

When I write music, these colors pop out of me. It's hard to describe, but basically when I write music, I paint, and I add colors, and I add notes.

At the beginning of each project, I like to create a palette of sound for that particular project.

I'm a very visual person when it comes to writing music. I like to see something besides just a script, even if it's just a storyboard or pictures from the set.

I might even go for walks, just kind of come up with ideas in my head and then even sleep over it. And, yeah, the next day, when I wake up in the morning, I feel like that's when the ideas come, because you kind of wake up fresh and clean. You're not influenced from music on the radio or any other source.

When I work on my music, I always kind of just try to do my best work.

I used to just scribble things on a piece of paper whenever an idea would - came to mind. Now with cell phones. It definitely has gotten a lot easier because I can just take it out and just - I'll just sing into my phone.

What I like about the piano is that it's a beautiful hybrid instrument in the sense that it can sound very warm but also very cold.

What I love is that 'Game of Thrones' is always up for surprises.

I like to have recognizable themes and sounds that really connect to the project and that you can identify with that particular project. My goal is always, 'When that theme comes on - even if you're not in the room - you hear it and say, 'Oh my show is starting, I gotta watch.'

I always like to think of music as if you were to turn the picture off, actually. Just by listening to the piece of music, there's a story there and a connection to the characters and the plots and all of that.

I associate colors with music, or music with colors.

Performing was always something that I actually used to do before I settled in the studio as a composer.

As a film composer, you have to be a good collaborator.

A lot of people have said, 'Do a Westworld tour!' I definitely have ideas, because we could do a whole concert from just the first season. The player piano plays such a huge role in that one, so it's a must-have as a centerpiece.

Really, I get inspired by just switching projects and instrumentation and things like that - that creative part of just being different every time is really what inspires me.

I literally work every day and weekends.

What I love about 'Game of Thrones' is that the positioning of the music is so well done, because it's not overdone. When the music cuts in, it really has something to say.

First, I started to play the organ. I did that until I was 11. From the age of 11 to 13, I gave up music entirely. And then at 13, I picked up the guitar, and after one and a half years, I started practicing intensively. I began playing in rock bands, and it was there that I discovered that the music I liked to write was always instrumental.

It's always daunting to start from scratch, but it's exactly what I love about my job.

Deep down, classical Romantic music is what I love: Brahms, Tchaikovsky, the Romantics.

I used to love American Westerns, growing up in Germany.