Alex North Quotes

United States, Composer
December 4, 1910 – September, 8, 1991.

Alex North (born Isadore Soifer, December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first jazz-based film scores), Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award but never won a competitive Oscar despite fifteen nominations.

The United States and Turkey are the only two countries that don't have some kind of subsidy for the Arts. The whole culture in society has made certain films more acceptable. I turned down so many films in the '60s and '70s.

Alex North
- Society
- Culture
Today it's not culture; it's box office.

Alex North
- Today
- Culture

When I decided to go to a country that subsidized music, I went to the Soviet Union for two years.

Alex North
- Music
- Country
I like what I hear as a resulting combination of these two strands... something of a combination of familiarity and, for lack of a better word, strangeness.

Alex North
Composers today get a TV script on Friday and have to record on Tuesday. It's just dreadful to impose on gifted talent and expect decent music under these conditions.

Alex North
- Music
- Today
- Friday
There are scores you have to write objectively without getting involved.

Alex North
Fear is a problem with film music and films; people want to be conventional, and there's more commercialism today. If you are not daring in your art, you're bankrupt.

Alex North
- People
- Music
- Art
There are so few directors who are musical who appreciate music.

Alex North
- Music

I prefer to write music for family films. I like people.

Alex North
- People
- Music
- Family
My best film composing experience was with Elia Kazan.

Alex North
- Experience
Being an old radical, I like films like Spartacus. I could relate to the hero.

Alex North
- Hero