Explore Quotes by Carter Burwell

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.

New Yorkers may think they're on some cutting edge, but that's not especially true. It is, however, the most exciting heterogeneous mess of a town I've ever seen.

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 is one of the reasons it's admirable.

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

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

Performing written music, even when I've written it, is not very interesting to me.

Most films I work on, the people making the film are constantly second-guessing the executives of the studio, the producer, and the audience. It is very hard to accomplish anything in that situation.

I almost never try to make the audience comfortable. I wouldn't want that if I were in the audience.

Even if I went off to some other career, I hope I would still be doing Coen films.

Music is the subliminal connecting adhesive in film, or at least in narrative feature films.

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

I like business and personal life to be distinct.

The flow of Guiness into the studio was inspirational as well as nutritive.

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

The jarring change going from an urban environment to an extremely remote natural environment is extremely inspiring. It's constantly stimulating, it's like a slap in the face.

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

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'm always up for something new.

I write music to please myself. Hopefully the director's enjoying it too.

I had piano lessons when I was a kid, like most people. And hated them, like most people. And quit, like most people.

Learning how to improvise really awakened my interest in music.

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