Henry Mancini Quotes

Author Image

Henry Mancini

Profession : Composer

Birth : April 16, 1924

As a screen composer or film-music writer, I need something that I can work with in the body of the score. Like 'Charade,' 'Moon River,' 'Wine and Roses,' 'Dear Heart' - they were all just themes that grew out of the picture.

Henry Mancini

I became a melodic writer after 'Gunn.'

Henry Mancini

Music has been taken over in this country by personalities and dominated by rock 'n' roll. There's been a synthesizer invasion and it's not going to go away.

Henry Mancini

Music is constantly developing and changing.

Henry Mancini

The most immediately gratifying thing about my work is conducting a large orchestra. But the long range payoff is composing because you've written something and it's there forever.

Henry Mancini

Well, I thought the opening of 'Hatari!' was pretty good. And 'The Pink Panther' wasn't half bad either.

Henry Mancini

Sometimes people can see a movie of mine and not know until the credits roll that I wrote the score. That makes me feel good, that I can get out of that box every once in a while.

Henry Mancini

You know, directors are funny people. They live with these movies for a year or more. And when you go in to score the picture, you're fooling with their child. They want to know everything that happens to the score - and why.

Henry Mancini

You're molded by the period you were brought up in.

Henry Mancini

I've had pieces in my catalog that kind of amble along, that really never go anywhere, but are known and liked.

Henry Mancini

Some of the prettiest music I've done was in films that really were not a smash. Your music fares as the film does.

Henry Mancini

I used to raise the devil when my father made me practice the flute and my mother made me take piano lessons.

Henry Mancini

Oh, I'd been writing cartoonish music pretty much all along.

Henry Mancini

Themes on some TV shows are overdone. That 'Playhouse 90' theme music was an example.

Henry Mancini

I don't like to surprise anyone with the music I compose for a film. That way, there is less trouble later on.

Henry Mancini

Some scenes cry out for a certain kind of treatment. The kind we're conditioned by years of film-watching to expect.

Henry Mancini

You can make or break a picture in the dubbing room.

Henry Mancini

Getting out and being able to present a concert is invigorating.

Henry Mancini

If a film is not doing well, a record company will not take a chance with the score.

Henry Mancini

The great thing about a record is it frees your imagination; it gives your eyes a rest and lets your mind wander. There's the special thing that each record can mean a different thing to every person listening to it.

Henry Mancini