I don't think I've ever spent more than an hour on any one song, but that doesn't count the thinking that goes on beforehand.

Broadway is intimidating. Don't think it's not.

I was always trying to be a quote, unquote, film composer.

I try to change my concert program every couple of years - hopefully to keep my listeners interested.

A good theme - like the 'Pink Panther' or 'Baby Elephant Walk' - can work all the way through the picture, which is what I did with them. So, for me, a good melody is not just a pretty tune.

I just love what I do.

Bassoon is not an easy instrument to play and to pick it up and play it like a flute or a saxophone is quite an accomplishment.

If I'm writing songs for a country-Western picture, I have to know about country music.

I don't know if I've ever written a song that wasn't on assignment.

I've never gone to a singer with a song and said 'why don't you try this?' or tried to get a record like that. My head just wasn't there.

I play citified Count Basie piano. As few notes as possible, my left hand in my pocket, that kind of stuff.

Getting married in 1947 and settling down in Hollywood was the real beginning of my career.

In the mid-1930s, a lot of the Big Bands sounded the same.

Amplification of guitars revolutionized the popular music scene. Youngsters look for quick fame and big money with amplified guitars and working with rock groups.

Too many schools across the country have cut back heavily on their music curricula.

I wanted to write picture music ever since I was a kid.

Technique is superficial. The method used in applying technique is what gives music its character.

I don't pretend to want to write the Great American Symphony.

In 'Charade,' there was a big fight. George Kennedy was playing one of his first big heavy roles; he had a hook for a hand, and he was real ugly. Cary Grant was Cary Grant. They were on a slanted roof, a very exciting fight, and we agreed there shouldn't be any music, just the grunts and the action.

I'm no songwriter because all of my popular songs have just been outgrowths of themes for the various pictures.

As a screen composer or film-music writer, I need something that I can work with in the body of the score. Like 'Charade,' 'Moon River,' 'Wine and Roses,' 'Dear Heart' - they were all just themes that grew out of the picture.

I became a melodic writer after 'Gunn.'

Music is constantly developing and changing.

The most immediately gratifying thing about my work is conducting a large orchestra. But the long range payoff is composing because you've written something and it's there forever.

Sometimes people can see a movie of mine and not know until the credits roll that I wrote the score. That makes me feel good, that I can get out of that box every once in a while.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

You can make or break a picture in the dubbing room.

If a film is not doing well, a record company will not take a chance with the score.

I would like a shot at Broadway.

The Pavarotti and Galway albums were a lot of fun because I got to work with two of the best 'voices' in the world.

My profession has never demanded that I be mobbed by fans.

I don't usually take a picture if I don't like it. I have that choice. But some pictures I like more than others.

Erroll Garner is one of the few musicians I believe has a sense of humor in his music.

Some people say 'flutist.' Others say 'flautist.' I just say 'flute player.' That's what I was.

My father was a steelworker who'd come over from Abruzzi, in Italy. He played in the band and he encouraged me to be a musician.

I very rarely write anything before what I see what I'm writing for.

Most people are oriented to words. When the public hears a melody, unless you put words to It, it takes longer to penetrate. It's always been like that, but I don't know why.

If you want to write for films or TV, you must go to Hollywood.

When I first began to work in pictures I tried to attract the attention of film critics, but I don't make movies to please them or myself anymore. I look for material that will entertain.

I equate composing with orchestrating. I think my music in terms of an orchestra.

I play a very streamlined piano.

I hate to do anything halfway so I leave the guitar alone.

I don't have a trunk of manuscripts.