Gershwin inspired me very much. The concept of 'That Lucky Old Sun' was inspired by 'Rhapsody in Blue' - not influenced, but inspired.
Erik Satie does not say the opposite of Debussy; he says the same thing only the other way round.
I'm a very style-driven composer, and I like to give every project its own unique stamp.
Compositionally I always wanted to be like Fred Astaire.
The music I wrote as a kid already was always instrumental. It was never based on lyrics.
When I first started, I worked with three chords in every bar, but I found that tied me down - I'm not a chord-change writer, I'm a songwriter.
There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.
Jazz music is a style, not compositions; any kind of music may be played in Jazz if one has the knowledge.
I don't listen to much modern composition.
I tend to write short, brief snippets - I lean toward the chamber music end as opposed to the symphony end of things.
No one has the Houdini school of composition.
I try to do a lot of asymmetrical, triangular compositions - I find those work really well for comic book covers in that portrait mode, and I don't always see that in other artists.
As soon as I choose the timbre of an instrument, that dominates how I compose.
Ambrose Phillips . . . who had the honor of bringing into fashion a species of composition which has been called, after his name, Namby Pamby.
I've always looked at guys who I've admired, like John Williams and Lalo Schifrin and Max Steiner, and looked at the choices they made and always try to take a cue from that.
