Music Film Quotes

I learned how to play mandolin for 'A Mighty Wind!'

I didn't discover how music and film could work together until Jim Jarmusch had me do 'Ghost Dog.'

Music documentaries are tricky because of 'Spinal Tap.' That movie has stood the test of time.

I haven't thought about making a music film, but if I did, that would be a very interesting idea.

I think punk rock needs an 'Amadeus.'

If you're doing a music film, you've got to be singing about something.

I met Jim Jarmusch when I started recording my album 'Ya Nass.' He was writing the script for 'Only Lovers Left Alive.' Jarmusch was always a great inspiration to me, way before meeting him. Working with him was fantastic.

I always had a dream about trying to make a movie that had no dialogue in it, that was just music and pictures. I still haven't done it yet, but I tried to get close in the beginning.

We were approached to do the story of Bananarama as a film.

For a ridiculous analogy, let's take Purple Rain. If you were to put Purple Rain and The Sound of Music on the desk of a producer, he or she would know that the majority of moviegoers would rather listen to Prince. Since they are in the business of making money, no one can blame them. But if it ever came to the decision of making a film like that I'd say, "No." They are very easy films to make, though. In Purple Rain there is nothing complex about the way that they dance. Or sing. It would be a bit boring for an adult to make that film. It just wouldn't test their métier.

I think possibly the first film that has music as its leading character.

The use of music in 'Gloria' is not cynical.

If you're doing a music film, you've got to be singing about something. Or, you have to be singing in a vocabulary that has tremendous appeal or else people are not going to want to sit there for eighty or ninety minutes hearing this stuff.

My absolute favorite movie of all time is Pink Floyd's 'The Wall.' Nothing compares to it. I have seen it thousands of times and still watch it every few weeks.