Composer

I was raised by women. I have my parents, but I have two older sisters and I would learn from them about what is a female and what is a girl and what is an adolescent and what is a young woman and I was very close to them.

I've always loved mixing Middle Eastern instruments into a classical orchestra.

Well, I consider myself as much as a filmmaker as a moviegoer.

That's the main lesson I've learned from working in the theater: respect the dramaturgy. I don't want to overwhelm everything with music.

The goal is to make the music really a part of the skin of the film, and not be detached.

For me, comic scores always have to have some melancholy in the background.

There are some moments in your life and in your career when you meet a movie and the director that suddenly just turns you to another dimension.

Well I think usually I would do six or even 10 scores a year. Some are big films and some are not.

Music is never inherently funny!

Every director has his own syntax, his own grammar, his own words.

Mozart for me is the No. 1 composer. His music is not just joy or sadness. It's deep emotion with a touch of lightness, which is the most difficult thing to do.

I always try to do movies that are different from the ones I've done before.

I've always been a film lover - that's why I've always wanted to write music for films.

When you work on animation, the music has a great task: to create a sound and melodies and mood and atmosphere and energy dedicated to these extraordinary characters.

I don't think I would deliver the best work if I would do several projects at the same time. So it's one at a time, but I work a lot. I work nonstop actually, but that's what I like.

It's not easy to write an understated score over a loud one.

We will always hear the vibrations of Ennio's music and feel it in our hearts.

I've been very lucky early on to be surrounded when I was a child by music from various countries. My parents would listen to a lot of music coming from other universes.