Quotes About Engagement

I feel as though my criteria are based more on how challenging the role is, it doesn't have to fit into any particular profile, is it something that I've never done before, and is it something that I feel like I can really feel challenged and therefore fully engaged in, and that's when the work gets to be the most fun.

It's my approach as a filmmaker always to go in, not with a thesis or preconceived notion, but with curiosity and questions and inquiry. So in some way, I'm always surprised. I'm always finding paths of engagement.

When they say 'action,' I am into it completely and forget everything around. When they say 'cut,' I am back to myself.

What I try to get beyond is playing music at people and, instead, to play music with people because audience members are constantly part of the experience. What they say in their body language, what they say in their eyes, what they sing with me... it's an 'us,' and there's a communication that's like... it's like church, man.

I don't believe that classical architecture is enough to engage people anymore. They say: 'So what else is new?'

There's a bizarre insistence on how a story should be. 'The protagonist must be sympathetic!' they say. Whatever that means. I never engage in that discussion. I never use that word, 'sympathetic.' I just know 'interesting.'

I've always been a searcher - you know, a hunter. I'm certainly not the only one. They say actors shouldn't get political and everything, but you can't separate yourself. You can't disconnect yourself from anything.

You know when they say you need to put people who go well together? I much prefer to put people who fight at the table. Then you have some sort of sparkle at the dinner!

The biggest problem with American music right now, is that kids don't listen. They come by it honestly, Americans don't listen anyway. When people go to concerts, they say I'm going to see... not, I'm going to hear.

There's no way that if you get participation out of a person can they say you didn't rock it.

As they say, there are two rules in improv: Never say no, and never ask why. When another actor asks 'Why?' or says no to something you're suggesting, then it's very clear that they're putting the onus on you, because they're not comfortable with it themselves.

I really can't describe what my stand-up is like - people see it and they say it's like that, or it's like this, and that's really up to them, that's fine, but I don't sit around all day analysing it. I just try and enjoy a show and interest myself because if I don't do that then I won't interest anybody else.

People really have come for a dialogue when they go to a stand-up show in the U.K. They say, 'I understand that you have now finished your little comedy monologue; now I have something to say regarding what I've just heard.

In some communities, I show up, and they say, 'Well, we haven't seen our Democrat congressman in 10 years.'

They say, 'TV is not a captive audience,' but it definitely is. You can easily switch off the bloody television.

I always tell people this; when they say, 'What's gonna happen here? What's gonna happen here?' I always tell people, 'You think you want to know, but you really don't. You want to experience the event as it happens on TV.'

Usually I'll tell someone, for example, like their watch. If they have a watch on, I might say, 'In three minutes, I'd like to be wearing your watch. Do I have your permission?' Once they say yes, I play a little game with them as I'm interacting with them, and I steal their watch.

If you're in the media, particularly newspapers, you are in the thick of all the interesting things that are going on in a community, and I can't imagine any other life that one would want to dedicate oneself to.

Being in the thick of things is a good thing.

You can't go wrong with reading the fans and letting them tell you who they like. I think that's really paid off for me in the long run - being down to earth and just really cool with each and every fan that I meet - and they've really supported me through thick and thin.

I understand that show business people can wear the public a bit thin when it comes to politics. I know they wear me thin.

There's a thin line between catering to the masses and making a fool of yourself; I try to walk that line.

A man should have duties outside of himself; without them, he is a mere balloon, inflated with thin egotism and drifting nowhere.

It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.