Elfman Quotes

I just kind of understood it, and I threw my love for others and love for life into the character, and was having a blast. I loved playing Dharma. I loved it! ~ Jenna Elfman

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

I just think it's fun to remind people that good television has exited and it can exist again and just to give them pleasure and enjoy it and make them laugh. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

It's such a pleasurable experience to look back, and all of the fun I had just comes rushing back. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

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

I do not see how it's possible to have a "friends with benefits" lifestyle, because if the sex is great, it's going to naturally expand into a more meaningful relationship. Otherwise, it's just a booty call. ~ Jenna Elfman

My motto is that I enjoy life. I think there's a kind of simplicity to that way of thinking. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

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

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

In other philosophies, my questions would get answered to some degree, but then I would have a follow-up question and there would be no answer. The logic would dead-end. In Scientology you can find answers for anything you could ever think to ask. These are not pushed off on you as, 'This is the answer, you have to believe in it.' In Scientology you discover for yourself what is true for you. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

I want to go outside and play. ~ Jenna Elfman

And you know, we did it as an independent film, and we weren't expecting it to be on television, and Lifetime ended up buying it. And the viewers responded intensely to that film. ~ Jenna Elfman

There is such a thing as fate, but it only takes you so far. Then its up to you to make it happen. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

I intend to make Scientology as accessible to as many people as I can. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

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

I got good notice from that show, and on the last day of filming Townies, Twentieth Century Fox called wanting to meet with me about a development deal. ~ Jenna Elfman

I think that marriage is an amazing institution and should be preserved, and you can have great marriages, and you must because sharing your life with someone is like the greatest thing. And I loved being able to set a good example for that on television. ~ Jenna Elfman

Playing in front of an audience was just such a turn-on for me, and you have 200 people in the audience and it's like doing live theater. And filming something that goes to millions of people several weeks later, it's an interesting dynamic. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

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

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

It was the most pleasurable thing I've ever done, playing this character, and I just remember feeling so at home and so - I don't know, I was just happy - and it just wasn't ever work! It was like a sandbox for me, and I would crack myself up rehearsing. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

Comedy is much more challenging, because you have to have the same level of belief but you have to make people laugh, and that's definitely a challenge. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah, I think the common denominator - and this is probably going to sound like Acting 101 - but the common denominator is belief in the character in the moment. ~ Jenna Elfman

Alan Cumming was such a fun guy to watch. I remember he has a song in the first 'Spy Kids' movie, and when Danny Elfman came to set, they were working on the song. ~ Daryl Sabara

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

And you don't want to just totally mess up the rhythm when you're playing with Bob Dylan. ~ Jenna Elfman

Especially while television I think is going through some growing pains or is in need of - I think current comedy is a bit, uh, not happening, you know? ~ Jenna Elfman

Sting! I mean, come on - whoe doesn't love Sting? Even if you love Megadeath, you have respect for Sting. If you love Pokemon, you'll find out who Sting is someday. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

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

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

Like, to do a pilot, you don't know what's going to happen with it. ~ Jenna Elfman

-"Say no more," Leif interrupted. "I understand. I will simply have to kill them all myself."
-"There he goes again. I'm telling you, Danny Elfman would love to get hold of those lines."
-"Not John Williams?"
-"If you've got some hopelessly overmatched heroes fighting evil and some Imperial types marching, John Williams is your guy. You need a song to make people reach for a box of Kleenex, talk to Randy Newman. But if you want creepy atmospherics and spine-shivering chords to back up your casual death threats, you gotta bring in Danny Elfman. ~ Kevin Hearne

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

AIDS is a state of mind, not a disease. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

As far as sitcoms go, I thought Jenna Elfman in 'Dharma and Greg' was a wonderful physical comedienne who had great timing. ~ Carol Burnett

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

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

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

I'm not some big party chick, so it's not like I have to keep up my big social life. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

In comedy, something may be more absurd, but you have to believe just as much as you do when you're doing drama. ~ Jenna Elfman

Drama is not hard for me. It just didn't seem hard. ~ Jenna Elfman

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

Not hippie - my parents were not hippies - but they were very supportive and encouraging, and that does a lot for someone, and it gives them a lot of confidence. ~ Jenna Elfman

I can't say I can foresee the future and tell the stars, you know. But I do have an understanding for my own reality, just elements and things that I've learned from. ~ Jenna Elfman

The most memorable moment was playing drums with Bob Dylan. ~ Jenna Elfman