Carter Burwell Quotes

I just love the sheer mess of New York.

Any film which views the darker side of life, which is death with a sense of humor, is very much to my taste.

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 would like to do a science fiction film some day. Star Wars seems really to have destroyed the genre, which at one time offered great musical opportunities.

If not bliss, ignorance can at least be fun.

All my music is very simple in that melody is usually clearly stated.

Carefully execute every instruction given to you by the director, producer, and studio. But that would be a life not worth living.

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.

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.

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

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

Connection is what one is after in probably most media, but certainly in film, which is an immersive medium.

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

Death is always around the corner, but often our society gives it inordinate help.

How does my music connect to an audience? That is just a complete mystery to me.

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

Hopefully each film can be given a musical voice of its own, which is not to say that the instrumentation is always unique, but that the relationship between the sound and the image is unique.

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

A carefree quality is a whole aspect of life that I will never understand. I don't think I have ever been carefree and can't see the pleasure of it.

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

I think being a little nuts is helpful.

I have always loved Scottish music - all sorts of Celtic, Gaelic music.

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

Los Angeles is an industry town, and it has great facilities and personnel. The disadvantage is that everyone there seems to talk about the same subject matter.

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

There is not much irony when people are being happy on screen.

Big Sur is at the end of the continent. It attracts really crazy people.

Conducting, I tried it once off the cuff, and quickly realized there were subtle aspects that I was missing. There is a lot more to it that I was able to grasp simply by watching conductors.

I don't find myself lobbying for projects. Filmmakers almost always come to me.