DAVID NEWMAN

To this day, I adore classical music, and I'm very interested in opera, which I found out later my father was also extremely fond of.

I actually played violin on 'E.T.' I used to be a violinist.

I'll probably always write film scores. It's the one place where a composer has almost unlimited resources at his beck and call. When music you have written works well in a film, nothing can beat it.

We went to a very liberal Episcopalian church. It didn't take for me.

We had a normal childhood. I played baseball, and we played violin in orchestras three times a week. I learned more from that than anything else.

I had no interest or intention of ever writing music. I was a professional violinist in my 20s. I was obsessed with conducting, and I was conducting as much as I could, and I was studying as much as I could. I went to USC; I got an undergrad degree in violin and a master's degree in conducting.

The Spirit is a kind of postmodern loner hero. He comes from nowhere; he has no real relationship to anything.

I'm not very interested in pops concerts. I'm interested in special events.

I think there has never ever been a career like John Williams'. That whole 'Jaws' phenomenon - there's nobody that knows how to use music like Spielberg, and John is just the perfect analog to Spielberg.

Playing in an orchestra is where I learned the most about music.

The Spirit is a kind of postmodern loner hero. He comes from nowhere; he has no real relationship to anything.

I'll probably always write film scores. It's the one place where a composer has almost unlimited resources at his beck and call. When music you have written works well in a film, nothing can beat it.

I actually played violin on 'E.T.' I used to be a violinist.

Playing in an orchestra is where I learned the most about music.

To this day, I adore classical music, and I'm very interested in opera, which I found out later my father was also extremely fond of.

There's a thing about film composing and conducting in my family.

I'm not very interested in pops concerts. I'm interested in special events.

I want to write theater pieces, opera, or some kind of amalgamation where there is singing, music and theater.

Film music has a great history of composers and performers.

I think there has never ever been a career like John Williams'. That whole 'Jaws' phenomenon - there's nobody that knows how to use music like Spielberg, and John is just the perfect analog to Spielberg.

We had a normal childhood. I played baseball, and we played violin in orchestras three times a week. I learned more from that than anything else.

People who go to concerts hear Beethoven's symphonies hundreds of times, but 'Star Trek' is recorded, so it's not played all the time.

I had no interest or intention of ever writing music. I was a professional violinist in my 20s. I was obsessed with conducting, and I was conducting as much as I could, and I was studying as much as I could. I went to USC; I got an undergrad degree in violin and a master's degree in conducting.

I think John Williams, him and his team, have been incredible orchestrators. By that, I mean how he chooses which instrument plays which note.

We went to a very liberal Episcopalian church. It didn't take for me.