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" In my youth, cinemas showed two films in one day. I used to watch both of them. It may sound strange, but 'West Side Story' was the only musical I liked. I didn't like musicals, or films with songs, at all. I always thought they were not real, that the songs sounded a little bit false. But in the case of 'West Side Story,' things were different. "

Ennio Morricone

Story

Thought

" I often use the same harmonies as pop music because the complexity of what I do is elsewhere. "

" I dislike cats. I like horses, some monkeys, and sweet dogs that aren't too aggressive. I used to have a wonderful, big cat, and one day I came into the kitchen and it was on the table, ruining all the food we were about to eat. I was so annoyed that I took it to a friend's house in the country. "

" If you scroll through all the movies I've worked on, you can understand how I was a specialist in westerns, love stories, political movies, action thrillers, horror movies, and so on. So in other words, I'm no specialist, because I've done everything. I'm a specialist in music. "

" De Palma is delicious! He respects music; he respects composers. For 'The Untouchables,' everything I proposed to him was fine, but then he wanted a piece that I didn't like at all, and of course we didn't have an agreement on that. It was something I didn't want to write - a triumphal piece for the police. "

" It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. "

" They're all my children... every score I've done. "

" I like to feel and understand people's contentment with what I've done. "

Ennio Morricone

People

Understand

" I really like conducting my music in concerts because I'm convinced it's not just for films; it has its own life. It can live far away from the images of the movie. "

" There are some directors who actually fear the possible success of music. They fear that the audience or the critics will think the film has worked because there was a very good music score. "

" I don't know the names of any pop musicians. Pop music is standardised; it's made to please the largest audience possible. I also compose to please a large audience, but when you listen to my music, you understand that I have studied and applied the whole history of composition. "

" I was born in 1928, so in 1943, 1944, we had the war in Rome. There were a lot of hardships, a lack of food, many shortages. So when I worked with the Americans, the English, and the Canadians soon after the war, when I played with them, they paid me with food. That will give you an idea how widespread poverty was at that time. "

Ennio Morricone

Time

Food

" I can't be enthusiastic as soon as I write something on the music sheet. The music sheet is only the beginning: it has to be listened to, played by the instruments, and then heard by the director, but most importantly, it has to be listened to by the public. "

" Everyone has to die. I'm not particularly scared about it. What really frightens me is that if I go before my wife, I will leave her alone, and vice versa. The ideal would be to die together. "

" The respect for a musical score must come from the director... If the director has no power and has to surrender to budgetary constraints, this is where we have the problem. "

" When I have to score a film, I watch the movie first and then start thinking about it. And from that moment on, it is as if I were pregnant. I then have to deliver the child, so from that moment on, I think always about the music - even when I go to the grocery store, I think about it. "

" It could have been extremely boring to write musical scores for only westerns of horror films. It was really exciting for me to work in all these various genres. "

" My more risky or avant garde music is not that well known to a wider audience, but I wish it was. "

Ennio Morricone

Music

I Wish

" I have to see a definitive cut of the film before I even start thinking about the music, I tell the director what my feelings are and what I would like to do. He accepts what I say or discusses it or destroys it. Eventually, we have to find a compromise. "

" Some movies work really well with music from Bach or Mahler that existed long before the film, so music has its own autonomy. "

" Bernard Herrmann used to write all his scores by himself. So did Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky. I don't understand why this happens in the movie industry. "

" I like composing music, but I love being with my family. "

Ennio Morricone

Composing

Family

" You can see my decision as either a distinctive factor or as a limitation. I don't feel it is a limitation. "

" I also used these realistic sounds in a psychological way. With The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I used animal sounds - as you say, the coyote sound - so the sound of the animal became the main theme of the movie. "

" I come from a background of experimental music which mingled real sounds together with musical sounds. "

" I was offered a free villa in Hollywood, but I said no thank you, I prefer to live in Italy. "

" My favourite type of pizza is a Napoletana: tomatoes, mozzarella, and very few anchovies. It must have a thin base. "

" Music needs room to breathe. "

" There was a theft! But, of course, if it was up to me, every two years I would win an Oscar. "

Ennio Morricone

Theft

Years

" I want people to know about all the kinds of music that I write. Some believe I just write film scores, which is not true. "