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.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea that self-criticism can be more intense than external criticism, highlighting the passion for one's craft.
In this quote, Hans Zimmer reflects on the relentless nature of self-expectation and the pressure he places on himself as a composer. Despite acknowledging the harsh realities of the Hollywood music industry, he emphasizes his love for the art and the urgency to excel in his work since life offers limited opportunities to achieve greatness.
In practice
This quote could be used during a motivational speech for artists to encourage them to pursue their passion diligently.
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.
Anything can become a musical sound. The wind on telegraph wires is a great sound; get it into your machine and play it and it becomes interesting.
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
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.
I've spent my life trying to make things simpler. Because I find ultimately that complicated doesn't reach the heart.
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.
The singers who are the most honest are the ones who become immortalized.
It's important that a film is loud and I hope many people agree. You should be inside of a film when you go into a theater. It should surround you, envelope you, so you can live inside a dream.
For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.
If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.
A film director is not a creator, but a midwife. His business is to deliver the actor of a child that he did not know he had inside him.
Fashion is in the sky, in the street.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.