Marvin Hamlisch Quotes

• You know, anyone who invites me to do something makes me feel special.

  Marvin Hamlisch

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• Many, many years ago, I was one of the few conductors who talked to the audience and now a lot of classical conductors have figured it out… otherwise, you just get the back of someone’s head playing music you could hear on a CD. It’s not enough anymore.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• My whole thing is not just to play music for people, but to make them part of the evening.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• I’m not one of those people who says, ‘I never read reviews,’ because I don’t believe those people.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• I can make a song up about anything: garbage, the weather, things in the news.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• Let’s say music is needed for only 43 seconds of film. You have to score it so it is an entity, so it won’t bother anyone when it ends so quickly. Or if a song runs 2 minutes and 45 seconds, but the titles run a minute longer, you have to arrange that song so it doesn’t get repetitious.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• From the time I could play the piano, I remember trying to write tunes. They were in my head, and I would just sit down and start noodling. Next thing I knew, I had written a melody.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• I have always thought of music as a highway with many lanes.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• The biggest thrill you can have is to tell people one of your songs, and have them be able to hum it.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• You mustn’t underestimate an audience’s intelligence.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• Normally I can balance two or three things. The problem is when you’re out of work and don’t have anything to balance. I think people assume you’re always busy. You go through dry spells.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• Maybe I’m old-fashioned. But I remember the beauty and thrill of being moved by Broadway musicals – particularly the endings of shows.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• I still have great faith in what is good and right in all of us.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• My show business career doesn’t mean I can’t write a symphony. It just means I was never asked to write one.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• As I get older, I’m slowing down and, yes, calming down in my desire to be taken seriously. That I can be entertaining and funny and high nervous energy can work against me as a serious composer, slowly but surely you’ll see me be quieter just so that people will listen.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• If I’m within reach and can be helpful, I have a tendency to say ‘Yes.’ It’s hard to say ‘No.’

  Marvin Hamlisch

• There have been studies that clearly state that children who are exposed to arts education at a young age will in fact do markedly better in their SAT tests.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• I was always drawn to Broadway musicals, and obviously composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter were writing music that I found wildly impressive.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• I think that when NASA works on a moon shot, they know too well that all of the people working on it must do their job at 110 percent. Sometimes they probably put in 18 hour days, but they’re aiming for the moon, and that’s what counts.

  Marvin Hamlisch

• I started studying music at the age of five and a half. My older sister was taking piano lessons. When her teacher left our apartment, I would get up on the piano bench and start picking out the notes that were part of my sister’s lessons.

  Marvin Hamlisch

Marvin Hamlisch (22)

Birth:	2nd June, 1944
Death:	6th August, 2012
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Composer, Lyricist, Music Conductor

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Today's Anniversary - 21st November

Births

• 1958 - Rickson Gracie
• 1971 - Michael Strahan
• 1870 - Mary Johnston
• 1844 - Ada Cambridge
• 1929 - Marilyn French

Deaths

• 1999 - Quentin Crisp
• 1996 - Mohammad Abdus Salam
• 2000 - Sir Cyril Astley Clarke
• 1926 - Joseph McKenna
• 1969 - Norman Lindsay