Connection is what one is after in probably most media, but certainly in film, which is an immersive medium..

If not bliss, ignorance can at least be fun..

I like business and personal life to be distinct..

If someone suddenly lost their director the day before shooting and wanted me to step in, I'd be willing to. But I'd do brain surgery the same way. I….

When the systems we expect to help us actually hurt us, we have tragedy..

There is not much irony when people are being happy on screen..

I don't generally find myself listening to the music of a film unless there's something awfully wrong with it..

A carefree quality is a whole aspect of life that I will never understand. I don't think I have ever been carefree and can't see the pleasure of it..

Big Sur is at the end of the continent. It attracts really crazy people..

I like the fact that New York looks a bit backwards, toward the Old World, rather than resolutely forwards..

I'm one of those people who is actually inspired by a deadline. I might not sleep for many days on end, it may not be good for my health, but it defi….

John Barry was the first film composer I was aware of. As a teenager I owned several of his Bond soundtracks..

Learning how to improvise really awakened my interest in music..

On Being John Malkovich and the cinema of the absurd, I do enjoy it. I wish there were more like it. The very fact that there can't be more like it i….

I prefer a life in which we don't take ourselves too seriously..

Any film which views the darker side of life, which is death with a sense of humor, is very much to my taste..

I don't personally see my work as being dark. What interests me is a balance between light and dark..

In mainstream romantic comedies, I'm usually tearing my hair out. It's just a devastatingly difficult genre for me..

John Barry was my hero when I was about 13. His scores to the James Bond movies were the scores of my life back then..

How does my music connect to an audience? That is just a complete mystery to me..

I think I've only done one horror movie, Psycho III. That was a walk in the park compared to a romantic comedy..