John Williams Quotes

“There's a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn't have to do with body movements, it doesn't have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual.”

“Any working composer or painter or sculptor will tell you that inspiration comes at the eighth hour of labour rather than as a bolt out of the blue. We have to get our vanities and our preconceptions out of the way and do the work in the time allotted.”

“So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories.”

“A man may live like a fool for a year, and become wise in a day.”

“It was himself that he was attempting to define as he worked on his study. It was himself that he was slowly shaping, it was himself that he was putting into a kind of order, it was himself that he was making possible.”

“The Olympics are a wonderful metaphor for world cooperation, the kind of international competition that's wholesome and healthy, an interplay between countries that represents the best in all of us.”

“To continue to work, to continue to love what you do, is certainly a contributing element to one's longevity and health.”

“I don't make a particular distinction between 'high art' and 'low art.' Music is there for everybody. It's a river we can all put our cups into and drink it and be sustained by it.”

“Composing music is hard work.”

“You never write a theme for a movie thinking, 'This will live forever.”

“There are occasionally eureka moments - off the top of my head, maybe Darth Vader's theme, you know, the imperial march.”

“I am so lucky to be working in a field that you never grow tired of.”

“When we see Rey, we want to hear Rey's theme, and when the Force is referred to or felt, we want to hear the Force theme.”

“As a youngster, I never dreamed there could be a career actually earning a living writing music.”

“I'm not a frustrated concert composer, and the concert pieces I've done have been a small part of my work.”

“Working in Hollywood for the orchestra world is a very time consuming and laborious job.”

“I let it go. I have not looked at the 'Star Wars' films, and that's absolutely true.”

“The Olympics are a wonderful metaphor for world cooperation, the kind of international competition that's wholesome and healthy.”