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In horror movies, you can write music that if it was performed on the concert stage would have the audience running out of the room with their fingers in their ears. But in a movie, all of a sudden it becomes incredibly accessible and appreciated.

I can't even watch horror movies - I have to turn the music down!

I get startled really easily, so I hate horror films. I have to close my eyes when I think something is going to make me jump, because I just scream.

I started out coming from more of a concert music background. It just turns out that 20th-century music techniques lend themselves to scary movies and horror movies.

'The Exorcist' is amazing because it recognizes that silences can be as powerful as sound effects.

Don't set out to make a scary movie and then flinch every time you're supposed to scare somebody because you're afraid of being MPAA or you're afraid of your own demons or whatever.

Because I trained in theater, I always leave a film shoot feeling like I haven't done anything, like I just sat in front of the camera and whispered, essentially.

I cannot state enough how important post-production is for the success of a horror movie. You bring so much to it with the way you edit it, the way it is sound-designed, and the way the music works with it.

I've always been a bit of a sound freak in the movies I've done.

I have to have music on when writing, or else the silence swallows me whole.