Quotes from Alexandre Desplat

I've been very lucky early on to be surrounded when I was a child by music from various countries. My parents would listen to a lot of music coming from other universes.

When Wes has a new a project, you know that it's going to be something as different as the previous was from the previous one. Each time, he tries to take you to a country, or a land that is unknown for you and for him, and reinvent this land. That's what he did with 'Darjeeling,' with 'Mr. Fox,' with 'Moonrise Kingdom.'

My parents had a lot of movie soundtracks that they brought back from the States. So very early on I heard film music at home.

Well I never play back my music, just so you know, it's there sitting in my drawers and what I remember is that, what I can say is that there are steps, you know, moments in my life where I know that one score was a new chapter. I can say that 'Read My Lips,' by Jacques Audiard, 'Sur Mes Levres' was a chapter.

I don't think I would deliver the best work if I would do several projects at the same time. So it's one at a time, but I work a lot. I work nonstop actually, but that's what I like.

Because I work so much, people think that I have a team writing for me, but that's not why I chose to write music for films. I chose to write music because I like to write music. So every single note that comes out of my studio is written by me, and I wouldn't be able to do two movies at the same time.

I think great scores have to be noticed, but they're wrong when you hear the music come in.

It's not unusual to have only three weeks to score a picture. And that's three weeks from signing on to finishing the last recording session. That's how I did 'The Queen' and, more recently, it's how I did 'The Imitation Game.'

I never dreamed of writing for concert or opera. I always dreamed, if I was a composer, to write music for films.

I don't know if I would write an opera, maybe because of the words. But yes, I would be really excited to do it. I would certainly write a ballet or... I've done a lot of stage before.

Yea, there is no way you can get away from critics. It's all over the net. Sometimes it's useful to read things, good or bad. Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it stupid because they say stupid things.

I always say that to compose is to think. Playing is good, it's useful, but it's how your intellect puts the ideas together that will bring hands to write or to play. So, it's really a combination of many things; hearing sounds, hearing layers of counterpoints, of chords.

I've always loved mixing Middle Eastern instruments into a classical orchestra.

It's not about what's a good or bad score at the Oscars, rather what's exposed to the ears more.

Musicals are made of several climaxes that keep growing and growing; when you think it's over, it still continues growing up in plateaus.

That's the main lesson I've learned from working in the theater: respect the dramaturgy. I don't want to overwhelm everything with music.

My art is applied to another art which is cinema, that makes my life much easier.

Some films that I love, I love them also because of the music. 'Vertigo,' for example, is a movie where the music is doing 70 percent of the job.

We will always hear the vibrations of Ennio's music and feel it in our hearts.

I'm being offered great movies by great directors and that's what I love, that's what I've dreamed to do, and that's what I do all day long. So I have to do it.

It's most difficult to score a comedy. Where are the limits? When does music become gimmicky or stupidly funny?

I've always been a film lover - that's why I've always wanted to write music for films.