Quotes from Alexandre Desplat

French horn can be very epic, and at the same time, very dark and moving.

Some directors can become concerned when it comes to music, because it's the end of the process and they're tired. They're worried that the music will intrude or waste something, that a composer will overwhelm the story.

I'm not a script composer. I'm a film composer and my brain is excited by images and moving elements.

Music can make you go from sadness to an immense sadness. There is a limit; if you go too far, it becomes schmaltzy.

I remember when I saw 'King's Speech' or 'Girl With the Pearl Earring;' there are moments in my life where I was blown away and thought, 'Wow, that's why I chose to be a film composer.' These films are so beautiful and so strong, and the music can be very much part of the emotion.

I saw the finished version of 'The French Dispatch' quite a while ago, and it's just amazing. It's so incredibly strong and different... the way that Wes is expanding his talents to another dimension with each film is just wow.

Godzilla' took two months because it required a two-hour-plus score. 'Imitation Game' was three weeks.

Music has to deal with silence. Music has to deal with time.

I've been pretty lucky to work with directors who were quite influenced by European cinema.

Music is never inherently funny!

I always tend to think that composing is not playing an instrument, composing is having something in your head that's steaming and it has to go out. It has to become sounds and be written. It's an emotion that you can't repress.

When I was 15, I was not living with my parents anymore. They were on an island in the Caribbean and I was back in Paris, where I lived with my sisters between 15 and 19.

I've scored all the movies that Jacques Audiard has directed. It's a long love story between us, trying to find a voice that would belong to his films only.

If you're a director and you pay homage to Japan, you're definitely going to remember what you've learned from watching the Japanese masters' films.

I was raised by women. I have my parents, but I have two older sisters and I would learn from them about what is a female and what is a girl and what is an adolescent and what is a young woman and I was very close to them.

I started piano like my sisters. After one year or two, I didn't like it anymore. Then, because I like trumpet, I played the cornet. When you are 7, you can't play trumpet - you play cornet. And something didn't go well. The teacher was too hard. Too rough. Suddenly, there was this instrument, the flute, that I could immediately play.

For me, comic scores always have to have some melancholy in the background.

I liked 'The Darjeeling Limited' very much. There was a melancholy about that film that I liked.

Certainly 'Zero Dark Thirty' is not for children!

On 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' I must insist that the sounds of the instrumentation are crucial to reflect what the movie should convey in terms of energy and emotion. It's not just the melody or the tune.

Argo' was a very exciting project for me because I knew that I could mix together influences from my youth as a young musician and a young composer.

There's a quality to the sound of a trumpet that you can really twist for any kind of sound and mood that you want to create.

Mozart for me is the No. 1 composer. His music is not just joy or sadness. It's deep emotion with a touch of lightness, which is the most difficult thing to do.

It's not easy to write an understated score over a loud one.