Thomas Newman Quotes

Thomas Newman

Profession : Composer

Birth : October 20, 1955

I think I compose as a listener: improvising and listening back excites me because I get to ideas that never would have occurred. Then I bring in the computers and samplers... and I begin to loop and process and change them.

Thomas Newman

It's always nice to remember that there was a time when I loved something that I didn't know much about; it just reached my ears and moved me.

Thomas Newman

Whatever you say to yourself about it being just another movie, and you're going to do the job you always do, it ends up being a 'Bond' movie and a sense of what it is to put music to James Bond and to honor the music that exists.

Thomas Newman

After the music that had been created by my family, I thought there was no way I could stack up.

Thomas Newman

If you fail, fail fast enough so you can regroup and do it better.

Thomas Newman

I realized so much of my life hasn't been in a well-lit room, and I realized the importance of documenting my experiences as a way to memorialize them.

Thomas Newman

'Sugarcoat the Galaxy' is inspired by color-inflected photographs of galaxies. It likens sounds to spun sugar and confection, wrapping static harmonies inside energy and pace.

Thomas Newman

Part of me wants to stay hidden; it's no coincidence that I write movie music. It lets me stay in the shadows, in a way, but still lets me be expressive.

Thomas Newman

The experience of a film is immersive, and music is supposed to underline and help that experience.

Thomas Newman

'The Starship Avalon' is perpetually mobile. The music is designed to give the impression of endless sleep and endless journey with a significant interruption that guides the story that follows. It's color and pulse followed by great size.

Thomas Newman

The rare opportunity of writing music for a movie about the making of 'Mary Poppins' was impossible to ignore. The fact that it could provide emotional content in relief of the struggles that the Sherman brothers and Walt Disney endured was reason enough to take on the challenge.

Thomas Newman

I had ideas. A lot were good, but in many ways, I had no idea or experience about how to carry them out.

Thomas Newman

When you see an early edited version, you're not sure what it is. The movie is getting on its wobbly legs.

Thomas Newman

It's a practical matter. If you're useful to others, you'll be hired.

Thomas Newman

There were certain things in 'Nemo' - just this low hum of ocean and watery sound - that was enough to imply water, as opposed to restating it over and over again.

Thomas Newman

In animation, action is changing so quickly that there's really not a lot of suspended moments.

Thomas Newman

In live action, sometimes a mood or a feeling can go on for quite a while. Animation is a lot more effort. There are a lot more notes.

Thomas Newman

You want to say as little as you can and get the most punch out of it, always with the knowledge that people are not in the theater to listen to your music so much as to respond to the movie. You're a part of that experience.

Thomas Newman

I didn't listen to any of my dad's scores.

Thomas Newman

I just want my music to involve an audience in what's taking place onscreen.

Thomas Newman