Thomas Newman Quotes

Thomas Newman

Profession : Composer

Birth : October 20, 1955

The golden age of Hollywood was the conceit of the movie and the style of the movie.

Thomas Newman

For me, like anyone, you want to go into a movie and have an enjoyable time where you're just involved.

Thomas Newman

Music is such an odd thing when you think about it - behind an image until you take it away, and then you realize a movie sounds blank without it.

Thomas Newman

I know what my taste is, and I do like my touch on the piano.

Thomas Newman

There was no saying I could ever step in and do what John does, because it'd be really hard to be John Williams.

Thomas Newman

Losing makes you strong.

Thomas Newman

I flew to England to see the rough cut of 'Revolutionary Road.' I was quite moved. As a married man, it's kind of disturbing to see a couple try so hard to work things out and fail so miserably.

Thomas Newman

The idea of creating film scores was terrifying for many years, into my 30s. It struck me as a career of doing 30-page term papers the night before they're due.

Thomas Newman

The fun for me musically is that you never quite know what works and why. So why pretend you do? Why not just put things together and discover, in the creative process, if and why they work? That approach has served me well.

Thomas Newman

In general, I probably have a shy nature. So the idea of poking out with my music is probably not something I want to do.

Thomas Newman

The thing I don't want to do as a film composer is reiterate. I prefer to subtextualize or to underline rather than to say, 'This is what you should be feeling.'

Thomas Newman

There are moments when I invoke my dad and think about him on the podium, but in a very positive way. I don't feel at all intimidated by him. I feel like I've found my own voice.

Thomas Newman

Movie music allows me to work with players as creatively as I can.

Thomas Newman

What satisfies me most are those nonverbal moments with players, when I sense them thinking and responding. And I think, 'Wow, this is amazing.' Hollywood gives us the money to do this. I want to be grateful for that, and I also don't want to waste it.

Thomas Newman

There was no way I could not do 'Finding Dory.'

Thomas Newman

When you go into something like a space movie, you think there's going to be no music or little music.

Thomas Newman

In 'Saving Mr. Banks,' the challenge was just transitions. Time transitions from 1961 to 1906; how do you follow a character in one environment to another? And sometimes these transitions were quick, so how do you do that?

Thomas Newman

It's always easy, I think, to raise the importance of a scene through the addition of music. But it's very awkward to end it unless there's a door slam or a gunshot or something that just takes you right out of it.

Thomas Newman

The thing about the creative process is it's so chaotic.

Thomas Newman

We're all shocked by new ideas, and we're less shocked when we hear them again. And less shocked when we hear them a third time.

Thomas Newman