Famous Quotes & Sayings

Danny Elfman Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 44 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Danny Elfman.

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Famous Quotes By Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 718690

I think that there's a lot more freedom in the low budget, the independent films where, unfortunately, you don't have the money, necessarily, to get the orchestras in there to play a lot of stuff. But, you have a lot more freedom, very often. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1704893

I'm so happy dancing while the grim reaper
cuts, cuts, cuts, but he can't get me.
I'm as clever as can be, and I'm very quick but don't forget;
we've only got so many tricks.
no one lives forever. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 405025

That still has to be there. And so, it's kind of an interesting question you brought up. Because, on the one hand, yeah, it'd be lovely. I certainly don't see that happening. In fact, I see the opposite happening. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 938620

I think that's one of the things that has always put me in kind of an odd niche. It's that all of my understanding of orchestral music is via film, not via classical music like it's supposed to be. To me it's the same, it doesn't make any difference. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 724255

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright It's our town, everybody scream In this town of Halloween. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 405961

I don't see myself necessarily having a burning desire to write a symphony. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 497035

The idea of performing some of Jack Skellington's songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas live for the very first time is immensely exciting. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1650521

Nothing bad ever happens, why should I care? — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 2069144

The beauty of a main title is that you establish your main theme and maybe a bit of your secondary theme. You plant the seed that you're going to go water later in the score. And so, having that removed just made it so much more difficult. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1511314

I had to do this very aggressive, big score in a very short time, and knowing that in the beginning, middle, and end would be this very, very famous theme, but I still had to weave a score around it and make it work as a score was really challenging. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1603042

It all depends on the directors. Working closely with a director is the main job of a film composer. Interpreting what he perceives as a color, an emotion or mood is very abstract. A director tells you something he wants and then you have to run back. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1663152

It often feels like a tremendous amount of work is required to get an idea moving forward, like pushing a train uphill. But at a certain point, the thing takes on its own momentum, and takes unexpected turns. So it's that feeling of holding on, rather than pushing it, that is the most exciting thing. It's that need to occasionally bounce off the walls, letting anything happen for any reason, and having nothing to guide you that is the joy. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1679953

I'm looking for a feel and I have to find what that feel is before I can move on from there. I'm not necessarily catching stuff in such a simple way - I don't need to. So, I'm going for something else. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1792093

Or certainly I would need time - which I would love to have but there almost never is on a film - to just spend a week with a roomful of guys laying down these patterns. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1844103

I can't get that live and I don't have the time to take the tape, after I've finished recording it, into a little studio somewhere else where I can get a different kind of percussion sound. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1920721

The first thing I do is lay out that melody and figure out how it has to hold here and then finish to land here, because you know in advance you're going to want the melody to catch four things in the action. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1996398

You have to nail the right tone because sometimes when you just see his films cold, you're not quite sure. It's the same in - I'm trying to think of other directors with a similar sense - David Lynch's films, Tim's films, some of Cronenberg's stuff. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1999822

I'm trying to interpret the film through the director's head, but it all comes out through me. So, a composer is kind of like a psychic medium. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1285235

So I've learned in the past, if a company approaches me and they want something like this, or something like that that I've done and I turn them down, they're going to do it anyhow. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 2076701

In some types of music I'm working out all the chords one bar at a time - the whole structure, because it's about that. And there are other pieces which are really about - okay, the melody is going to start here and play through to here. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 2087856

Sometimes I like them artificial and sometimes I like them real. And the reason is because sometimes I like a real close sound. And I like a very specific snare sound and I can't get that in the big room. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 2157811

You're allowed to rip-off another score so close that it's ridiculous. In my opinion it's ridiculous, how closely one can just rip-off a score that happened a year or two earlier. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 2209432

I'll look back and I'd be better to answer that in about three months from now. Or when the movie comes out and I see it. I don't even know what it is yet. I've still been in the middle of it. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 2255078

You'll never get me into a tux. Not until I'm dead and I have no choice because that's what the undertaker put me in. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 2263734

It's just hard. I wish the studios felt there was more value in these themes and these pieces of material - that they're worth protecting more. Because then it just wouldn't happen. If the studios cared, the stuff would be stopped in a second. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 863316

You have to write a good score that you feel good about. At least, you're supposed to. But, if the director hates it, it ain't going to be in the movie! — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 293625

Oh see, first off you gotta realize - everything for me is a reconstruction or deconstruction. I would actually say deconstruction. Mission: Impossible would be the exception. That would be a reconstruction- deconstruction. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 494650

There's kind of a cool feel that happens every now and then. I guess that feel is the thing that makes the score its own score. But, I don't know exactly what that is. So, it's hard for me to answer that question. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 564703

I would dazzle you with brilliance, if I only had the knack. Cause I like you just the way you are. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 613539

You hear the beginning of a melody, you should kind of know it's going to lead down this path. It should start feeling like a friend, like familiar. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 682373

I really liked doing a number of the projects and directors, and etc., etc., I knew about half-way through that I would never be doing that again. It's just not me. I really am happy as a part-time film composer, not a full-time film composer. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 789129

I would have to say I might do some stuff, but it's the film that's appealing. I was raised on film. My musical experience is all via film, it's not from classical music. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 812024

It sounds really stupid, I hate making cosmic comments like this but, I just let it do what it wants to do. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 816581

Doing Tim's film is always going to be the most pleasure. Let me just put it that way. So, without drawing favorites one way or the other, getting back with him and doing Mars Attacks! was certainly a special treat. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 826583

Most often the music does end up in the movie, and sometimes there's a point where I wish that it wasn't, just because I think the score would be more effective if there was less of it. But, again, that's not my call. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1370729

So, it becomes an exercise in futility if you write something that does not express the film as the director wishes. It's still their ball game. It's their show. I think any successful composer learns how to dance around the director's impulses. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 914654

I like creating these rhythmic patterns. These interlocking rhythmic things are really fun. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1093912

I'll just start laying out the melody exactly where I want it to fall. And then I'll go back and fill it out. Whereas, in other pieces I'm really just going a couple bars at a time. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1164548

For me, writing something in the spirit of Halloween is like Mother Teresa writing on charity and sacrifice. It's just second nature to me. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1236658

It's hard to get a film, you know, you need a very special film to be able to get that experimental. But, I would love to see that happen. I would love the opportunity to be more experimental than I am. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1279969

I took part of Alan Silvestri's theme on the original [movie], which I really liked, and I pulled it into it new theme, which became kind of a hybrid. I really enjoyed that. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 233814

Sometimes on a film you just become taken with the fact that, all right this is as rough as it gets, but I'm going to support my general and I'm going to do the very best I can for him because he's a good general and I like him. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1311942

In Tim's films, more than most, if you miss the tone, you don't get the film. — Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Quotes 1314143

If there's one thing I really love ... it's sad music. — Danny Elfman