Quotes by Henry Mancini

Some scenes cry out for a certain kind of treatment. The kind we're conditioned by years of film-watching to expect.

I don't like to surprise anyone with the music I compose for a film. That way, there is less trouble later on.

When someone asks me to do a score, I look at the picture two or three times. I never watch the rushes to pick up the mood as quickly as I can. If it's something I want to do, just watching the film will start the wheels turning.

Themes on some TV shows are overdone. That 'Playhouse 90' theme music was an example.

Some producers hang-on to that old cliche that if the audience hears the music, it is no good. I say this is so much talk. Music gives the film another dimension, if it's done with the story in mind.

Oh, I'd been writing cartoonish music pretty much all along.

I've turned down many pictures, mostly because I didn't like them.

Some of the prettiest music I've done was in films that really were not a smash. Your music fares as the film does.

I've had pieces in my catalog that kind of amble along, that really never go anywhere, but are known and liked.

You're molded by the period you were brought up in.