Daniel Robert Elfman is an American singer-songwriter who led the rock band Oingo Boingo from 1978 until its breakup in 1995, and has since gone on to become one of the most sought-after film score composers working in Hollywood today. He has written the scores for numerous films (including Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, The Nightmare Before Christmas) as well as composing themes to several TV shows, including The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, and Tales From The Crypt.

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• We don't wanna leave you, but...but we got to...wish this point right here, wish it could last forever right now! Yeah...it's kinda like one big orgasm!
  • Spoken before the performance of Only A Lad from Oingo Boingo's farewell concert on October 31, 1995 (which was released on CD, VHS and DVD).

• You'll never get me into a tux. Not until I'm dead and I have no choice because that's what the undertaker put me in.
  • From an interview in Entertainment Weekly #422, March 13, 1998.

• It'll say, 'Danny Elfman, who wrote the theme to 'The Simpsons,' etcetera...That's what I'll be remembered for.
  • On what he believes will be his obituary, from the Los Angeles Times cover story, "A Different Beat", 1999.

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• Like The Nightmare Before Christmas, writing songs for Corpse Bride was a real treat. Tim's visuals make the perfect complement for the kind of stuff I love doing most. These wonderfully fun, dark, offbeat tales are the perfect platform for me to write odd, slightly twisted, obscure styles such as my favorite musical era... 1930s jazz. I only hope we get to do more in the future.

• I get drawn to things that don`t make any sense, and I learned early on not to resist that.

• My education in film music came from watching tons of films.

• For me, writing something in the spirit of Halloween is like Mother Teresa writing on charity and sacrifice. It's just second nature to me.

• Then on the other hand I don't make it easy for those types to meet me, I'm sure. I live pretty privately, let's say. So I've not yet met a film score groupie. If they're out there, then we're keeping ourselves all well hidden from each other.

• There is a shadow in the wind. I think a tragedy awaits me.