Quotes About Preparation

It's been about ten years since I've worked with actors who knew their lines!

As far as feeling like I need to prove myself or this or that, I don't feel that way anymore. I've been in this business for ten years, so I'm kind of past all that. I was there where, as a female, you always feel like you have to prove yourself; you have to outwork them. But all I worry about now is being prepared.

Markets tend to shake you up before a bull run.

I always carry a book with me to read on the bus, and I tend to arrive everywhere early.

I think the main mistake people tend to make is that they rush desserts. Take your time and plan ahead.

People might not believe me if I say I get nervous, but I tend to practice constantly to show a balanced performance.

I always tend to see, right after reading the script, the character and how I want to play it. I guess that's sort of most of the work, preparing for the role, but almost the creation of the character seems to go on as I read through the script.

We watch so much film, calling up pitch by pitch, count by count in order to spot tendencies. Technology is a big part of how I get ready for a game. What's funny is a lot of the NFL guys say they study the 'Madden' game; that's how they learn to read offenses and defenses.

Especially in this league, you can have a tendency to look ahead, but really, it's about one taking one day at a time, one game at a time.

I have a tendency to postpone starting a piece until it's kicked around in my head a little bit.

A lot of what I do is try to watch tape and understand how guys come out of breaks - what their footwork looks like, or how they look at the top of a pass route. Guys have tendencies. I try to understand what they do, which allows me to be successful.

The big mistake people make is eating their grilled beef hot. I prefer room temperature or cool. When the meat rests and starts to get cool, all of that fat goes back into the muscles and becomes much more tender.

I'm not a fan of grilling meat, since that tends to dry it out, and I find grill marks leave a bitter taste. A good steak house will offer different options for preparation, and I would ask them to broil or pan-roast the steak and finish it with butter. It ends up a dark chocolate color and stays very juicy.

Actors need bricks to play with, and in fact we rejected all the improvised fragments we had made without a plan. Improvisation without a plan is like tennis without tennis balls.

As far as fitness is concerned, you have to enjoy it, do good exercises, and integrate them into your tennis practice. The preparation for the season is as crucial as doing good blocks when switching from one surface to another.

I always feel I sing better if I have been playing a lot of tennis or football.

I'm slightly influenced by sport in that I like the idea of trying, like an athlete, to keep absolutely ready. That's an emotional thing, almost. I don't mean physically, although I play tennis. But you try to keep yourself ready.

Whether it's learning to hit a backhand in tennis, learning high school chemistry, or getting better at ski racing, I really believe with hard work and analytic preparation, you can skip a few steps and find the faster way.

I can't bear the thought of retirement, and I haven't prepared myself for it. I don't play bridge, and I don't play golf. I do play tennis, but you can't do that every day of the week.

I think, of course, when you are coming somewhere, when you know you are playing good tennis, it always helps you.

I played tennis a lot when I had the skull injury. For the first two months of my preparation, it was all I could do. It is a great sport for me because it helps my hand-eye coordination, and you need quick feet, which is a good exercise for a keeper.

I have six racquets and usually two pairs of tennis shoes with me. Most of the time, the shoes can last two or three weeks if I'm playing all the week. I'm not the kind of player who slides a lot, so I just need one extra pair in my bag.

We all know how to play tennis. We all know how to hit the ball. It's more just about those details - managing all those early rounds and just managing yourself to make sure you're ready for whatever is coming up next.

One of the biggest things I've worked on is how to play my best tennis every single time I walk on to the court.