Quotations

Academy Awards:

"...The rehearsals have to start when the nominations are known. It is a lot of work..."
"...The musical director is responsible for getting the music together. He does not neccessarily write every note (this simply would be impossible). It is more an administrative work rather than a artistical..."
"...During the show I wear headphones: On one ear I hear the instructions from the director. You don't know which theme you'll play, because the envelopes are sealed..."
"...from February till the show, which is in march, then it becomes really intense..."

"...I've conducted twice when I've lost. I was up for Rocky and For Your Eyes Only when I had
to play someone else's music. And the only time I sat in the audience during fourteen years of
going, I won for The Right Stuff. It's a rush to do the show. It's all about being able to do live
music well, and I love it. But I was as bored and anxiety-ridden as everyone else when I was
sitting in the audience, the one year when I wasn't conducting. And I won! That was kind of neat..."

The Big Blue:

"...at some point I used real strings. So with this real strings you are talking about a lot of people, therefore the re-use fee became too much for anyone. There was a lot of music in that movie, and some place there's an album already to go, but someone has to pay..."

Gloria:

"...I have been told that the score to "Gloria" has become quite an underground hit in Europe..."
"...This was much fun for me doing it..."
"...I had complete artistic freedom..."

The Right Stuff:

"...If you know what a hommage is..."
"...I had an album completed, but the movie was not as successful as expected.So it couldn't be released..."
"...they don't want to release the record (original score) because of the re-use payments to the musicians..."

Rocky:

"...the horn players are gonna hate me for this..."
"...Three sequences - training montage, the fight, and the end of the movie - were cut to the music. Film scoring can be a collaborative art form..."

"...he (Sylvester Stallone) was as unknown as I was unknown. And he liked the music when he heard it, but he does what he does and I do what I do, and every once and a while our paths cross..."

Sylvester Stallone:

"...the relationship is kind of business relationship..."
"...because he is so musical he's not really difficult to work with as a director..."

For Your Eyes Only:

"...John (Barry) was responsible for getting me "For your Eyes only", the Bond picture I did, because John recommended me when he couldn't do it..."

Nomads:

"...I used Ted Nugent, the guitarist - great, just great! It was really bizarre..."
"...John McTiernan was fine, he was great. He loved it so much he never used me again!" (what he finally did with Thomas Cown Affair)

About directors:

"...if he wants it that way - it will be that way..."
"...the director is mostly not musically interested..."

About Ghosting:

"...It is correct that I did "Ghost" for one or two Italian composers while I was living there with my family..."
"...When I lived in Rome I did a lot of things for lots of people..."

Miscellaneous:

"...I have worked on the commercials and ABC news themes. I know nothing about their availability..."
"...music in a movie should be effective..."
"...music isn't intellectual. It is emotional..."
"...I think albums are made to sell. That's the reason they put out albums.To have the album come out, to see your name on vinyl or on a CD, is not of interest to me..."
"...I can write like Mozart or like Schönberg, or Holst, or Tschaikowsky..."
"...As soon as it's done (a score), then I go away and don't listen to it again, because you go on to write something else. I'm not saying I'm not proud, but that doesn't mean I listen to it..."
"...My wife couldn't get over it; "Don't we have a copy of "For your Eyes only"?" "No." "Oh, my God!" So I had to go out to the music store and buy it."

Until 1991 Bill Conti was most satisfied with the scores for "I, The Jury" and "A Prayer for the Dying".