Henry Mancini Quotes

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Henry Mancini

Profession : Composer

Birth : April 16, 1924

If I'm writing songs for a country-Western picture, I have to know about country music.

Henry Mancini

I just love what I do.

Henry Mancini

I don't know if I've ever written a song that wasn't on assignment.

Henry Mancini

I was always trying to be a quote, unquote, film composer.

Henry Mancini

A good theme - like the 'Pink Panther' or 'Baby Elephant Walk' - can work all the way through the picture, which is what I did with them. So, for me, a good melody is not just a pretty tune.

Henry Mancini

I've never gone to a singer with a song and said 'why don't you try this?' or tried to get a record like that. My head just wasn't there.

Henry Mancini

I play citified Count Basie piano. As few notes as possible, my left hand in my pocket, that kind of stuff.

Henry Mancini

Broadway is intimidating. Don't think it's not.

Henry Mancini

I don't want to get corny, but my career really has been the personification of the American dream.

Henry Mancini

Getting married in 1947 and settling down in Hollywood was the real beginning of my career.

Henry Mancini

You know, my career hasn't exactly been the sort of thing that usually happens to film composers, but I sure am glad it happened to me.

Henry Mancini

In the mid-1930s, a lot of the Big Bands sounded the same.

Henry Mancini

Too many schools across the country have cut back heavily on their music curricula.

Henry Mancini

My father started me out on the flute and I began going to teachers.

Henry Mancini

I wanted to write picture music ever since I was a kid.

Henry Mancini

I wanted to be up there with all those names like Max Steiner.

Henry Mancini

I don't pretend to want to write the Great American Symphony.

Henry Mancini

I find I work best as a reactor, trying to portray something on a screen musically. If I were a boxer, I'd be a counter-puncher.

Henry Mancini

If you call making people smile with 'The Pink Panther,' then I made a contribution.

Henry Mancini

I'm no songwriter because all of my popular songs have just been outgrowths of themes for the various pictures.

Henry Mancini