Carter Burwell

I would like to do a science fiction film some day. Star Wars seems really to have destroyed the genre, which at one time offered great musical opportunities.

In mainstream romantic comedies, I'm usually tearing my hair out. It's just a devastatingly difficult genre for me.

I think I've only done one horror movie, Psycho III. That was a walk in the park compared to a romantic comedy.

Hopefully each film can be given a musical voice of its own, which is not to say that the instrumentation is always unique, but that the relationship between the sound and the image is unique.

John Barry was my hero when I was about 13. His scores to the James Bond movies were the scores of my life back then.

Learning how to improvise really awakened my interest in music.

The flow of Guiness into the studio was inspirational as well as nutritive.

Even if I went off to some other career, I hope I would still be doing Coen films.

I'm one of those people who is actually inspired by a deadline. I might not sleep for many days on end, it may not be good for my health, but it definitely helps.

Any film which views the darker side of life, which is death with a sense of humor, is very much to my taste.

Death is always around the corner, but often our society gives it inordinate help.