I'll probably always write film scores. It's the one place where a composer has almost unlimited resources at his beck and call. When music you have written works well in a film, nothing can beat it.

I want to write theater pieces, opera, or some kind of amalgamation where there is singing, music and theater.

To this day, I adore classical music, and I'm very interested in opera, which I found out later my father was also extremely fond of.

Playing in an orchestra is where I learned the most about music.

I think there has never ever been a career like John Williams'. That whole 'Jaws' phenomenon - there's nobody that knows how to use music like Spielberg, and John is just the perfect analog to Spielberg.

I had no interest or intention of ever writing music. I was a professional violinist in my 20s. I was obsessed with conducting, and I was conducting as much as I could, and I was studying as much as I could. I went to USC; I got an undergrad degree in violin and a master's degree in conducting.

I think John Williams, him and his team, have been incredible orchestrators. By that, I mean how he chooses which instrument plays which note.

We went to a very liberal Episcopalian church. It didn't take for me.

There's a thing about film composing and conducting in my family.

People who go to concerts hear Beethoven's symphonies hundreds of times, but 'Star Trek' is recorded, so it's not played all the time.