54 Quotes by James Newton Howard

Something different happened to me when I started to write music to images. It was a feeling of excitement and connection and a sense of being in the right place that I never had before.

There's much more music now in movies than there used to be. Maybe sometimes there's too much music.

I work independently of the director, and to some extent, that's actually a big relief to them. When I come to them in post-production, they're tired and over-budget. What can be better to them than presenting a full score totally gift-wrapped?

I know that the classical world has resisted film composers throwing their hat into the classical concert music ring. And you know I don't think that's totally without justification. I think sometimes it seems to me there is a built in automatic prejudice against the whole idea of it. And it's very difficult to overcome that stigma.

There's a sadness about love, a melancholy and a sadness about beauty. It's just part of the human experience of living on this planet.

Music for cartoons is sillier, funnier.

It's always a challenge to come up with a musical environment.

I was a piano performance major at USC. I left before I graduated because I realized at some point I wasn't going to be a concert pianist and I was too attracted to popular music.

I joined Elton John's band in '75. He not only allowed me to play the electronic keyboard on his albums, he also let me do the orchestrations. Then I left the band and started producing records. I was not really a popular kind of hit music guy. I was attracted to more esoteric things.