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.
John Williams
There are occasionally eureka moments - off the top of my head, maybe Darth Vader's theme, you know, the imperial march.
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.
To continue to work, to continue to love what you do, is certainly a contributing element to one's longevity and health.
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.
You never write a theme for a movie thinking, 'This will live forever.'
When you think about Boston, Harvard and M.I.T. are the brains of the city, and its soul might be Faneuil Hall or the State House or the Old Church. But I think the pulsing, pounding heart of Boston is Fenway Park.
The Olympics are a wonderful metaphor for world cooperation, the kind of international competition that's wholesome and healthy, an interplay between countries that represents the best in all of us.
I am so lucky to be working in a field that you never grow tired of.
I, over the years, have always felt more comfortable if I could go into a projection room and look at a film and not really know what to expect. If you read the script first, you form all kinds of preconceptions about how things look, what the location's like, what the actors are like.
As a youngster, I never dreamed there could be a career actually earning a living writing music.
When we see Rey, we want to hear Rey's theme, and when the Force is referred to or felt, we want to hear the Force theme, and so on. We hope that these references make sense to the fans and make the aural connections that we want them to have.
Working in Hollywood for the orchestra world is a very time consuming and laborious job.
I'm not a frustrated concert composer, and the concert pieces I've done have been a small part of my work. What I've sought there is instruction, variation from the demands of film and relief from its restrictions.
I let it go. I have not looked at the 'Star Wars' films, and that's absolutely true.
I fell in love immediately with Daisy Ridley. She is just a superstar born.
Composing music is hard work.
I always wrote music for my friends, but my focus was on playing piano. I didn't think I'd be quite good enough to be a soloist, but I believed that if I worked hard enough, I could work as a player, a teacher.
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.
For me, there is a strong family connection to Boston and anything connected to Boston, which includes Fenway.
I feel very lucky, and the work that I do doesn't depend on much. If your vision's still good, and your hands - I have no arthritis in my hands, and I play the piano very easily - I don't think there's any reason to deprive oneself of the fun of working. Music is so rewarding.
I think of myself as a film composer.
As a young pianist in Hollywood, I began orchestrating for others, and I just felt really comfortable doing that.
I'm happy to be busy. I'm happy to have a wonderful family.
When I'm finished with a film, I've been living with it, we've been dubbing it, recording to it, and so on. You walk out of the studio and, 'Ah, it's finished.'
