Hans Zimmer Quotes Page 2

“Inspired music arises from an inspired movie which arises from an inspired script.”

“Never let your wife prevent you from buying equipment. A car will not buy a synthesizer, but a synthesizer can buy a car.”

“The challenge in scoring a sequel is, 'How do you not get bored?' The only way around that one is to go: Okay, let's throw everything out that we had before and let's just see it as an autonomous movie, and let's just start again.”

“The first thing I think about is music, and the last thing I think about is music. I'm like some Monk. I don't see a lot of daylight. I hang out with musicians, I hang out with directors and I just try to spend as much of my life as possible playing music.”

“The Graduate must be the best use of songs ever in a movie; it adds a layer to the movie you wouldn't ever get from a score.”

“The honest truth is that it was just traumatizing with the piano, with the authority of the piano teacher, getting rapped across the knuckles, and so whenever you put a piece of music in front of me, there's a Pavlovian reaction where it starts off.”

“The lack of education means, the lack of having something I can pull out of a drawer, means I have to find something in any movie I work on that is intensely personal.”

“The main thing the composer needs to do is it needs to remember that the director is there to cheer you on. The director wants you to succeed because if you succeed, you'll be helping the film. And they are truly your conscience. And they're truly your guide.”

“The rules are: The more playful we get, the more we can get rid of the rules.”

“The thing that hasn't changed, and I don't think will ever change, is that the operative word in music is 'play'. You have to have a playfulness about it. As the world shifts, it's starting to understand more and more that to have a playfulness about any and everything is actually the way of having a better life, or being more creative, or being more productive.”

“The writing gets done away from the keyboard and away from the studio in my head, in solitude. And then I come in and hopefully have something, then I wrestle with sounds and picture all day long. But the ideas usually come from a more obscure place, like a conversation with a director, a still somebody shows you, or whatever.”

“There's a power that movies and music has, that can move you and motivate you to look at your neighbor in a slightly more respectful way, and look at cultures in a more inclusive way.”

“Trust me, if you're working on a $70 million movie and you're the last guy, you feel all that weight on your shoulders.”

“What are you going to do when you are not saving the world.”

“What's the point of getting up in the morning unless you're gonna have an adventure? As the moments of our life are ticking away you have to be aware that it needs to be an adventure”

“When I was 13, when I was 14, when I was in England, yeah all I wanted to do was go and see The Who, go and see The Stones.”

“When movies first came out, maybe they were in black and white and there wasn't any sound and people were saying the theater is still the place to be. But now movies and theater have found their own place in the world. They are each legitimate art forms.”

“Why get up in the morning unless you’re going to have an adventure?”

“With animated film, you have to create the sonic world; there's nothing there. You get to color things in more and you're allowed to overreach yourself a little bit more, and it's great fun.”

“You always hear these stories of how Hollywood is so merciless on composers and how they all get beaten up. Nobody beats me up as much as I beat myself up. This is what I love doing and I have one life to do it in, and I better do it right. I better do it well.”

“You can only make a good noise on the guitar if you're committed. Little careful noise doesn't work. You have to be bold.”

“You have to realize I like doing big movies that appear on a big screen. So the visuals and the audio have to be of a certain quality before I start to get excited about the thing.”

“You have to remain flexible, and you must be your own critic at all times.”

“You're going to fail a few times, because that is the only time you actually learn something.”