The lack of education means, the lack of having something I can pull out of a drawer, means I have to find something in any movie I work on that is intensely personal.

I'm homeless, in a funny way. My culture I think is completely rooted in German 19th century music I suppose.

What are you going to do when you are not saving the world.

The honest truth is that it was just traumatizing with the piano, with the authority of the piano teacher, getting rapped across the knuckles, and so whenever you put a piece of music in front of me, there's a Pavlovian reaction where it starts off.

I think one of the things which always is forgotten in music class, is the first thing you have to do as a musician is you have to learn how to listen.

You have to remain flexible, and you must be your own critic at all times.

I don't drive, so one of my assistants drives me to my writing room, and I have a calendar on the wall telling me how much time I have left, and how far behind I am. I look at it and panic, and decide which scene to work on. And you sit there plonking notes until something makes sense, and you don't think about it any more. Good tunes come when you're not thinking about it.