Quotes from Ramin Djawadi

One of the most fun parts about my job is that when the music gets recorded live at the end of the project and real musicians play it, I still get goosebumps every single time.

What's so cool about 'Light of the Seven' - and what I love about 'Game of Thrones' - is you never know what's going to happen.

I always have a hard time describing myself.

The piano is such a timeless instrument.

We knew we wanted to have our own tone for the show. And then the big instrument that actually we came up with was the cello. It has a big range. It can play really low. It can play high. And it has a dark sound, and 'Game Of Thrones' is obviously - it's a dark show, and the cello became the featured instrument.

I love getting time to write a piece of music that can settle in and set the tone of the show.

With 'Iron Man,' I have to give Jon Favreau great credit for the score because he always said, from the beginning, 'Tony Stark is a rock n' roll guy.'

Silence can be a very powerful tool. Sometimes it's more powerful to leave you with nothing.

There is an emotional aspect to live players that, no matter how good the samples are, you cannot replicate.

With 'Westworld,' the player piano plays a very important role.

I wanted to play in bands and get signed by a record label and tour the world and stuff, but that never really worked out.

I don't listen to film music at all. I don't want to be influenced.

What's so great with 'Game of Thrones' is that there are so many characters and they're so many locations and that it's just very inspiring.

In the case of 'Game Of Thrones,' I've been to set a couple of times, and it's really exciting and inspiring for me to see the set and the actors in action, meet them and talk to them, so it definitely helps. If I can go to set, I will.

The music I wrote as a kid already was always instrumental. It was never based on lyrics.

I was born and raised in Germany, so I was classically trained. Classical has been deep in me from a totally early age. Then, as a teenager, I picked up the guitar and was really into rock music.

When I work on multiple projects, I'm really good at dividing my days, so I start in the morning with a clean slate.

I've worked with Jonah Nolan on several projects. I really love collaborating with him.

Absolutely, I'm living my dream. Yeah. My wife always jokes, says I'm a big kid, you know, playing in the studio and coming up with melodies and sounds. And, you know, I wouldn't know any other way because I just have music in my head all the time, and I just love it.

I began making music at the age of four. According to my mother, once I just sat down at the piano and played back a tune by ear. My parents were watching and said to each other, 'Maybe we should give him music lessons.'

I think a melody is a melody. And the way I usually start is I start writing my themes without even writing to picture to just try to find the tone for the movie or the TV show.

When I grew up in the '80s, all of my favorite TV shows always had these great openings, and it always got me excited.

I'm one of those artists who, if you'd let me tweak, would probably keep going and going, so it comes to the point where sometimes you just have to let go and make the decision, 'Okay, that's it.'

I always like to tweak things and push things forward.