Danny Elfman quotes

You'll never get me into a tux. Not until I'm dead and I have no choice because that's what the undertaker put me in. (Danny Elfman)
I don't see myself necessarily having a burning desire to write a symphony. View quote
Danny Elfman
It sounds really stupid, I hate making cosmic comments like this but, I just let it do what it wants to do. View quote
Danny Elfman
In some types of music I'm working out all the chords one bar at a time - the whole structure, because it's about that. And there are other pieces which are really about - okay, the melody is going to start here and play through to here. View quote
Danny Elfman
It'll say, 'Danny Elfman, who wrote the theme to 'The Simpsons,' etcetera...That's what I'll be remembered for. View quote
Danny Elfman
I'm trying to interpret the film through the director's head, but it all comes out through me. So, a composer is kind of like a psychic medium. View quote
Danny Elfman
Doing Tim's film is always going to be the most pleasure. Let me just put it that way. So, without drawing favorites one way or the other, getting back with him and doing Mars Attacks! was certainly a special treat. View quote
Danny Elfman
The first thing I do is lay out that melody and figure out how it has to hold here and then finish to land here, because you know in advance you're going to want the melody to catch four things in the action. View quote
Danny Elfman
Or certainly I would need time - which I would love to have but there almost never is on a film - to just spend a week with a roomful of guys laying down these patterns. View quote
Danny Elfman
It's hard to get a film, you know, you need a very special film to be able to get that experimental. But, I would love to see that happen. I would love the opportunity to be more experimental than I am. View quote
Danny Elfman
I had to do this very aggressive, big score in a very short time, and knowing that in the beginning, middle, and end would be this very, very famous theme, but I still had to weave a score around it and make it work as a score was really challenging. (Danny Elfman)
Oh see, first off you gotta realize - everything for me is a reconstruction or deconstruction. I would actually say deconstruction. Mission: Impossible would be the exception. That would be a reconstruction- deconstruction. View quote
Danny Elfman
I like creating these rhythmic patterns. These interlocking rhythmic things are really fun. View quote
Danny Elfman
We don't wanna leave you, but...but we got to...wish this point right here, wish it could last forever right now! Yeah...it's kinda like one big orgasm! View quote
Danny Elfman
So, it becomes an exercise in futility if you write something that does not express the film as the director wishes. It's still their ball game. It's their show. I think any successful composer learns how to dance around the director's impulses. View quote
Danny Elfman
Most often the music does end up in the movie, and sometimes there's a point where I wish that it wasn't, just because I think the score would be more effective if there was less of it. But, again, that's not my call. View quote
Danny Elfman
I would have to say I might do some stuff, but it's the film that's appealing. I was raised on film. My musical experience is all via film, it's not from classical music. View quote
Danny Elfman
You have to write a good score that you feel good about. At least, you're supposed to. But, if the director hates it, it ain't going to be in the movie! View quote
Danny Elfman
I'll just start laying out the melody exactly where I want it to fall. And then I'll go back and fill it out. Whereas, in other pieces I'm really just going a couple bars at a time. View quote
Danny Elfman
I think that's one of the things that has always put me in kind of an odd niche. It's that all of my understanding of orchestral music is via film, not via classical music like it's supposed to be. To me it's the same, it doesn't make any difference. View quote
Danny Elfman
In Tim's films, more than most, if you miss the tone, you don't get the film. (Danny Elfman)
I think that there's a lot more freedom in the low budget, the independent films where, unfortunately, you don't have the money, necessarily, to get the orchestras in there to play a lot of stuff. But, you have a lot more freedom, very often. View quote
Danny Elfman
For me, writing something in the spirit of Halloween is like Mother Teresa writing on charity and sacrifice. It's just second nature to me. View quote
Danny Elfman
You hear the beginning of a melody, you should kind of know it's going to lead down this path. It should start feeling like a friend, like familiar. View quote
Danny Elfman
It's just hard. I wish the studios felt there was more value in these themes and these pieces of material - that they're worth protecting more. Because then it just wouldn't happen. If the studios cared, the stuff would be stopped in a second. View quote
Danny Elfman