Quotes from Carter Burwell

Performing written music, even when I've written it, is not very interesting to me.

I think I've only done one horror movie, Psycho III. That was a walk in the park compared to a romantic comedy.

I have always loved Scottish music - all sorts of Celtic, Gaelic music.

Music is the subliminal connecting adhesive in film, or at least in narrative feature films.

I'm one of those people who is actually inspired by a deadline. I might not sleep for many days on end, it may not be good for my health, but it definitely helps.

Conducting, I tried it once off the cuff, and quickly realized there were subtle aspects that I was missing. There is a lot more to it that I was able to grasp simply by watching conductors.

I write music to please myself. Hopefully the director's enjoying it too.

Connection is what one is after in probably most media, but certainly in film, which is an immersive medium.

Big Sur is at the end of the continent. It attracts really crazy people.

Death is always around the corner, but often our society gives it inordinate help.

A carefree quality is a whole aspect of life that I will never understand. I don't think I have ever been carefree and can't see the pleasure of it.

In mainstream romantic comedies, I'm usually tearing my hair out. It's just a devastatingly difficult genre for me.

John Barry was the first film composer I was aware of. As a teenager I owned several of his Bond soundtracks.

I don't find myself lobbying for projects. Filmmakers almost always come to me.

I like business and personal life to be distinct.

Any film which views the darker side of life, which is death with a sense of humor, is very much to my taste.

Carefully execute every instruction given to you by the director, producer, and studio. But that would be a life not worth living.

If someone suddenly lost their director the day before shooting and wanted me to step in, I'd be willing to. But I'd do brain surgery the same way. I'm always up for something new.

John Barry was my hero when I was about 13. His scores to the James Bond movies were the scores of my life back then.

I prefer a life in which we don't take ourselves too seriously.

I had piano lessons when I was a kid, like most people. And hated them, like most people. And quit, like most people.

I don't generally find myself listening to the music of a film unless there's something awfully wrong with it.

On Being John Malkovich and the cinema of the absurd, I do enjoy it. I wish there were more like it. The very fact that there can't be more like it is one of the reasons it's admirable.

If not bliss, ignorance can at least be fun.