Top 104 Quotes & Sayings by Henry Mancini - Page 2

My wife and I never squabbled in front of the children. We never touched each other except in love.

My profession has never demanded that I be mobbed by fans.

I don't have a trunk of manuscripts.

Music forced into the air you breathe is an invasion of privacy!

I don't usually take a picture if I don't like it. I have that choice. But some pictures I like more than others.

Basically, I'm a melodic writer.

My kids will come to me and ask me to listen to a 'new sound' they think they've discovered. One time it was the Beatles' 'Yesterday,' and the new sound was four strings. All of a sudden the new generation discovers the string quartet!

You know, I started in movies a long time ago, and once in awhile I'm taken aback. Sometimes one of my things will come on - they use my things as background music all the time, in somebody else's arrangements and It catches my ear.

I play a very streamlined piano.

You've got to be an editor in order to be a good composer.

Writing music is very, very clinical. You just sit down at a piano, map out a theme and when all the technicalities come together, out pours the music.

Quite a few of The Rolling Stones records have had a great honesty about them. In fact, I would put them side-by-side with a 'Treasury of Folk Music' collection, containing all the prison songs, the farm and road-gang songs that were recorded on the spot in the Deep South.

I just write when the bell rings. I don't have time to wait for inspiration.

I score everything by hand on manuscript paper and then make copies.

It's very difficult to be funny musically. I think I achieved It with 'The Pink Panther.'

Hopefully the music of the future will not be all electronic. There is a place for it if it is used sparingly.

Blake Edwards has set up an extraordinary combination of moods in 'Peter Gunn.' When you stop to analyze it, you can't find the boundaries where the music stops and the show takes over.

Most everything I've ever written has .been done to 'assignment.'

When I play 'Newhart' in concert, it always gets a hand, right from the very beginning. To me, 'Newhart' is a hit.

Cancer... changed my whole work attitude.

The basic problem with young people entering show business is that they are in a hurry.

I've done entire scores for I don't know how many films and series. I never kept track; I suppose it's up in the hundreds.

Most people are oriented to words. When the public hears a melody, unless you put words to It, it takes longer to penetrate. It's always been like that, but I don't know why.

I compose the music according to the nature of the show. 'Peter Gunn's' focus was violence so that was my key.

Erroll Garner is one of the few musicians I believe has a sense of humor in his music.

The Pavarotti and Galway albums were a lot of fun because I got to work with two of the best 'voices' in the world.

I was never In a restaurant until after I left home. My mother came from Abruzzi and they're noted for their great cooking.

If you want to write for films or TV, you must go to Hollywood.

Some people say 'flutist.' Others say 'flautist.' I just say 'flute player.' That's what I was.

Writing for TV or films isn't great art. You have to have a common denominator. It's up to the composer to make that common denominator memorable.

I very rarely write anything before what I see what I'm writing for.

My father was a steelworker who'd come over from Abruzzi, in Italy. He played in the band and he encouraged me to be a musician.

I hate to do anything halfway so I leave the guitar alone.

The man who writes for hire has an obligation, if only to himself, to keep an open mind and to absorb new ideas.

Sometimes memorable music doesn't necessarily have to be a hit.

I have an Otari with a Korg T2 Midi synthesizer, a drum machine and a few effects units.

People love to hear a guy who is really good on his instrument. They love to watch him go.

I equate composing with orchestrating. I think my music in terms of an orchestra.

In times of stress, I frequently remind myself that I'm doing what I want to do most and that's what really counts.

It took me a long time to figure out what Holly Golightly was all about. One night after midnight I was still trying. I don't drink much, but I was sipping. And it came to me. I wrote [“Moon River”] in half an hour.

If you want to make money in music, get into the band uniform business.

Jazz is capable of doing much more than depicting the dope fiend and the drunk and the slinky gal. In our show there are many very funny sequences where we were able to use jazz as it can be used-in a happy way.

With the new technology that keeps entering the media, film composers are constantly being placed in new learning situations. Acknowledging this and realizing that one must keep up, I maintain, nonetheless, that the real creative power is in the mind and heart of the composer.

If you're feeling fancy free, come wander through the world with me, and any place we chance to be, will be a rendezvous. Two for the road, we'll travel through the years, collecting precious memories, selecting souvenirs and living life the way we please.