My father started me out on the flute and I began going to teachers.

You've got to be an editor in order to be a good composer.

Stravinsky influenced film music in general - those stabbing chords and rhythms from 'The Rite of Spring.'

My kids will come to me and ask me to listen to a 'new sound' they think they've discovered. One time it was the Beatles' 'Yesterday,' and the new sound was four strings. All of a sudden the new generation discovers the string quartet!

Quite a few of The Rolling Stones records have had a great honesty about them. In fact, I would put them side-by-side with a 'Treasury of Folk Music' collection, containing all the prison songs, the farm and road-gang songs that were recorded on the spot in the Deep South.

Well, I thought the opening of 'Hatari!' was pretty good. And 'The Pink Panther' wasn't half bad either.

Most everything I've ever written has .been done to 'assignment.'

If you call making people smile with 'The Pink Panther,' then I made a contribution.

Music forced into the air you breathe is an invasion of privacy!

When I play 'Newhart' in concert, it always gets a hand, right from the very beginning. To me, 'Newhart' is a hit.

Writing music is very, very clinical. You just sit down at a piano, map out a theme and when all the technicalities come together, out pours the music.

I read magazines and reviews. If consensus says something is good, I'll get it and see what's going on.

You know, my career hasn't exactly been the sort of thing that usually happens to film composers, but I sure am glad it happened to me.

Music has been taken over in this country by personalities and dominated by rock 'n' roll. There's been a synthesizer invasion and it's not going to go away.

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

Film music, over the years, has taken from everybody.

I had no idea 'Moon River' would do so well. I was too busy working to think about it.

You know, directors are funny people. They live with these movies for a year or more. And when you go in to score the picture, you're fooling with their child. They want to know everything that happens to the score - and why.

I just think the time and where I was brought up had a great deal to do in giving me the ambition to kind of get out and do something and not go into the steel mill.

Writing for TV or films isn't great art. You have to have a common denominator. It's up to the composer to make that common denominator memorable.

In times of stress, I frequently remind myself that I'm doing what I want to do most and that's what really counts.

Success is not usually easy or fast.

I compose the music according to the nature of the show. 'Peter Gunn's' focus was violence so that was my key.

My wife and I never squabbled in front of the children. We never touched each other except in love.