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So I write melodies - thirty, forty, fifty - then I cast them off until I have just two or three. If only one is needed, I go see the director and ask him to decide.
Michel Legrand
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Creativity involves producing many ideas before settling on a few that are the best.

In this quote, Michel Legrand emphasizes the process of creativity and decision-making in music composition. He describes how he generates numerous melodies, ultimately narrowing them down to a select few that resonate best, showcasing the importance of discernment in artistic endeavors and collaboration with directors or counterparts in the creative process.

Themes

CreativityMusicDecision-MakingArtCollaboration

In practice

Example use cases

In a music workshop, one might say, 'As Michel Legrand said, I write many melodies before picking the right one.'

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Quote by Michel Legrand | QuoteProject