I was never that into the movies. Never. Even as a youngster. I became interested in movie music only because of the studio orchestras in Hollywood.

I don't make a particular distinction between 'high art' and 'low art.' Music is there for everybody. It's a river we can all put our cups into and drink it and be sustained by it.

As a youngster, I never dreamed there could be a career actually earning a living writing music.

To continue to work, to continue to love what you do, is certainly a contributing element to one's longevity and health.

Any working composer or painter or sculptor will tell you that inspiration comes at the eighth hour of labour rather than as a bolt out of the blue. We have to get our vanities and our preconceptions out of the way and do the work in the time allotted.

So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories.

Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.

When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration.

The philistine provides the best definition of art. Anything that makes him rage is first class.

Art is anything people do with distinction.

Art is anything you can get away with.