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.

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.

Music is constantly developing and changing.

I became a melodic writer after 'Gunn.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

I just love what I do.

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

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

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