104 Quotes by Alexandre Desplat

It’s very hard to understand what’s happening in someone’s brain and what goes into their experience and their death, and the music has to say a lot.

I always wanted to be a film composer. So very early on I started collecting soundtracks and paying attention to how movie music works. Actually I’d like to have the opportunity to conduct for the rest of my life.

There are so many parts of music that it’s actually a pleasure for me to work with an orchestra, or a jazz band, or a choir, and use every element that the musical tool box can offer. The world of music I love so much, and I can change the costume depending on the part, and I’m actually in the film.

I never thought the orchestra should be big.

I'm there to tailor something very precisely and something very subtly to dialogue and the actor's energy. I'm there to bring out something that isn't spoken. 'King's Speech' is the perfect film to do it.

Because I work so much, people think that I have a team writing for me, but that's not why I chose to write music for films. I chose to write music because I like to write music. So every single note that comes out of my studio is written by me, and I wouldn't be able to do two movies at the same time.

That's the main lesson I've learned from working in the theater: respect the dramaturgy. I don't want to overwhelm everything with music.

I've loved Japanese culture for a long, long time, from doing martial arts, to the block prints, to the music. It's a country that I love, and a culture that I love.

Musicals are made of several climaxes that keep growing and growing; when you think it's over, it still continues growing up in plateaus.