Quotes About Presence

My daughter and I have this thing we call a PMA: 'perfect moment alert.' I try to really notice when we're having a PMA.

I'm like, bursting. I should be working. I don't want to take a break. It's funny, on set, I don't have to go to the bathroom, I don't have anything wrong, I'm perfectly fine, so through-and-through. I'm not hungry. I'm literally not even in my own body.

On my death bed, I'm not going to say, 'God I wish I did more movies.' I'm perfectly happy I was present for the ones I did.

For me, performance is a holy ground. When I perform, I really step into a different state of consciousness.

I can see it in even great actors' performances, when they're phoning it in.

A performer needs and craves a live audience.

I think we've become a TV culture, where we forget the live performer in front of us can see us. I think there is a self-centeredness that happens. There's nothing more important than what you are doing in that moment. So, unless it's an emergency, put your phone away.

I think what actors have to do, what performers have to do to emotionally get to that place and have a camera and have your face 20 feet high on a screen, is such an incredible thing.

A stage actor has to be 10% aware of the audience as he's performing.

I want to continue to remain present and grateful each day that I get to be doing what I love. Making and performing music I believe in.

Sometimes you go to a show, and you see someone and think they're not there right now. They're performing, but it's muscle memory. There is no memorising some of the ways we put on a show.

The jobs I enjoy most are the ones where I never feel like I'm performing. I'm just feeling things.

The difference between face-to-face conversation and any other medium of communication is simple: No distractions are permitted.

I do believe in ghosts, or at least in some kind of persistent spiritual echoes of the past in certain places.

I believe the best persona to be onstage is the one that comes naturally.

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.

So long as he was personally present, [Alcibiades] had the perfect mastery of his political adversaries; calumny only succeeded in his absence.

There is no need to have any special attitude while drinking except one of thankfulness. The nature of the tea itself is that of no-mind.

Some people, well, most people just seem to show up on your life with no clear purpose. Have you noticed that? They're like dust mites. You know they're there, you just don't know what to do about them.

Though not boastful, Leonard gives off an unmistakable air of a man who has always been there before you. He possesses that old-soul thing of wisdom more ancient than his body and his face.

Any day of the week I would choose to be "out" with others and in touch with myself... then to be "in" with others and out of touch with myself.

How far do you have to travel to find yourself? Do you have to go anywhere to find you? Where do you think you have to go? To some holy place to find yourself? Wherever you are, you are. And all you have to know, is to get to know yourself. That is so simple.

What does that mean, 'to be content'? One could argue, 'to have everything'. But can you have everything? Or do you already have everything, but don't know it? The most precious thing in your life happens to be right under your nose, and you're not aware of it. What is it? The coming and going of this breath.

If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words they're gone. They'll come back.