Henry Mancini

“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.”

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

“It's very difficult to be funny musically. I think I achieved It with 'The Pink Panther.'”

“I have an Otari with a Korg T2 Midi synthesizer, a drum machine and a few effects units.”

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

“I just write when the bell rings. I don't have time to wait for inspiration.”

“The great thing about a record is it frees your imagination; it gives your eyes a rest and lets your mind wander. There's the special thing that each record can mean a different thing to every person listening to it.”

“Basically, I'm a melodic writer.”

“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.”

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

“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 score everything by hand on manuscript paper and then make copies.”

“I wanted to be up there with all those names like Max Steiner.”

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

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

“I used to raise the devil when my father made me practice the flute and my mother made me take piano lessons.”

“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 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.”

“Cancer... changed my whole work attitude.”