Quotes About Performance

To have a part that is written for you certainly helps an actor.

Musicals are written in English, and then we import them to Japan. When we translate them into Japanese, the sounds of the language are completely different. The Japanese language is not the best for singing, in terms of sound.

I never freestyle. I always give a written verse cause I just don't wanna go out like that.

And I admit it: there's a rather dirty thrill when 700 people laugh at a joke you've written.

I was pretty dreadful on my first night as an announcer as back in those days the scorecards were written in a very strange way so that didn't help and some of the fighter's names were unpronounceable.

It's much harder to act poorly written material. It's much harder to memorize poorly written material.

I'm not like some other writers: I have no actual urgent need or desire to add to what's written. You write it; if you're lucky, it's performed, and that's the end of the whole thing.

Every time I sit in the audience and watch a show that I have been involved with, it is such an amazing feeling to see all those people around me, knowing they are actually watching and enjoying something I have written.

I wanted to hear the songs in the way that I had written them, which was very basic. All I wanted was drums and another guitar, and I was just going to sing.

There was an open mic night when I was about 11 years old and I went and I played the songs that I'd written in my bedroom and it was the first night where I felt like I was myself at school.

You have actresses like Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, who have roles specially written for them.

I make up stories in my head all the time, but I've never written them down. But I write a lot of story songs. Any song I'm singing, I sort of see it like a movie in my head. That's why a lot of times I close my eyes when I'm singing.

I love fame. I love being written about. I don't really mind if people think I'm a bad writer, if they don't understand my weird Instagram performance art or they find my long captions annoying. That's part of the package of being in the public eye, and honestly I find it exhilarating.

Well, the very best operas are the ones written by the very best composers.

Unless you're doing Shakespeare or Chekhov... the written word is not sacrosanct.

I definitely believe in the energy of the set and the energy of the actor, way more than your written word.

When it comes to casting, I've been so lucky. I've worked with unbelievable actors who make me look better than I am and take the written word and make it honest.

You think aerobics is not a cool sport? I think you are wrong. It requires amazing discipline - flexibility, fitness, knowledge. And you have to do it with a big smile on your face. Also, I once performed in front of 10,000 screaming women. I tell you something, I'd rather do that than kick a ball around in front of a few men.

If the lecture is good, then everything is too smooth. That's the same in music: if the performance is too good, you really don't enjoy it, because it just goes by, and you can never penetrate into the heart of it. Sometimes a poor performance is better for enjoyment, because you can look at those things that were wrong and analyze them.

Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

I think every entertainer's had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can't remember everything all the time, and especially if you're having hard times personally, things going on that you - you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

Challenging someone is good. You need to do it. Sometimes they don't even realize you're doing it, like when you joke with a goalie, 'What's wrong today? You losing it?'

Bono told me how to dance in high heels and he also told me about U2's Glastonbury performance and how everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong, including him ripping his trousers on stage. I think he was lunging and his trousers ripped! He was telling me how he had to find a new way of performing that didn't involve moving.

Actors always start with the voice and language. That's wrong. They should start with the body. The body is an actor's most important resource.