James Newton Howard

“What happens with a good score is, somehow the composer manages to cast himself or herself in the role of the protagonist. And then you write from their perspective.”

“I know that the classical world has resisted film composers throwing their hat into the classical concert music ring. And you know I don't think that's totally without justification. I think sometimes it seems to me there is a built in automatic prejudice against the whole idea of it. And it's very difficult to overcome that stigma.”

“The first 'Hunger Games' movie was one of those rare films to combine epic storyline, memorable characters and challenging musical opportunities.”

“I started studying piano at the age of four.”

“I have so much regard for the art of conducting. It's easy to look not so good up there.”

“Gamelan instruments are exotic and mysterious.”

“It's easy for me to write a quasi-virtuosic orchestral score. What is harder is to do that and say, all right, that works, but how else can you do it?”

“There's a sadness about love, a melancholy and a sadness about beauty. It's just part of the human experience of living on this planet.”

“Like most people, I hate public speaking.”

“Immersion in a movie over months and months will give you what you just can't get in the same way over a four- or six-week period.”

“The thing about 'Fantastic Beasts' is that it's in the wizarding world, in J.K. Rowling's world, but it's not a Harry Potter movie. It takes place 70 years before Harry comes into being, so while we tip our hat and acknowledge in a respectful and witty wink and a nod kind of way to 'Hedwig's Theme,' the score is composed of all new material.”

“I believe very strongly in having melodic hooks, whether they're short or intricate, that you really remember in a movie.”

“The colors of 'The Nutcracker' ballet score have become a part of the vocabulary of film music. It's where so much of the 19th-century romantic music that I call upon as a film composer is rooted.”

“That's what keeps me going: those moments of solving a problem, of what happens to a movie when the right music is added - and what happens to the music when the movie's working with it.”

“As a film composer I deal with short bursts of musical ideas that are defined to a large extent by what's happening on the screen, by not only narrative and action, but staying out of the way of dialogue, sound effects.”

“In most multiple composer situations, you find it because someone got nervous about the music and insisted that somebody else come in and help.”

“I try and write a fair amount in the beginning without the movie. And then when I do get the movie I create these demos, just mock-ups, and I throw them up against the picture and some of it sticks and some of it doesn't. But I'm very careful before I play anything to picture, because that's such a profoundly important moment.”

“It's always a challenge to come up with a musical environment.”

“I absolutely loved 'The New World.'”

“There's much more music now in movies than there used to be. Maybe sometimes there's too much music.”