Performers Quotes

Hollywood studio executives don't recognize the value of female performers as much as male performers. ~ Anna Faris

I always was a performer, from the time I was little. It was always a natural place for me to be. ~ Billy Crystal

It always gave me the creeps when I saw performers who desperately wanted the audience to like them. That's not what I'm about. ~ Barbra Streisand

I made the decision to take on board the critical feedback. Reviews are something you can easily ignore as a performer or writer but I chose to not ignore them here and I think that I benefited. I think I'm stronger for it - and I have a tougher skin as a result. ~ Rufus Wainwright

To others we are not ourselves but performers in their lives cast for a part we do not even know we are playing. ~ Elizabeth Bibesco

Only in the theatre was it possible to see the performers and to be warmed by their personal charm, to respond to their efforts and to feel their response to the applause and appreciative laughter of the audience. It had an intimate quality; audience and actors conspired to make a little oasis of happiness and mirth within the walls of the theatre. Try as we will, we cannot be intimate with a shadow on a screen, nor a voice from a box. ~ Robertson Davies

If you look at the world-class performers at the top of the game, their numbers are just exceptional and that is the level he is at. ~ Brendan Rodgers

I read that young Netalia Lackless had run away with a troupe of traveling performers. ~ Patrick Rothfuss

Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It's the real performers on the street who can hold people's attention and keep them from walking away. ~ Andy Kaufman

In a word, people really loved music without ostentation; they allowed it to operate upon them with its magic charms, no matter whether it was executed by four performers or by four hundred, and employed it in general as the surest medium for improving heart and mind, and thus giving a noble direction to the feelings. ~ Anton Schindler

Canadians send us great hockey players. You also send us wonderful performers, from the beginning, with Mary Pickford. ~ Jamie Farr

I was not intrigued with the accouterments of success and fame, the furs, jewels, expensive automobiles and mansions ... I can assure you that these things were not on my mind when I sat spellbound in that Pozzuoli movie house. It was what these performers on the screen were doing, not what they received for doing it. ~ Sophia Loren

When you have performers, there's the uniqueness of live performance and what performers do in concerts. ~ Paul Lansky

Actors and magicians are both performers, and they represent things that are not necessarily who they are. ~ Steve Carell

Even as a stage performer, I have my garb which is leather jackets and black jeans to make me feel a certain way. The wardrobe is really important to feeling the character you're playing. ~ Andrew Dice Clay

Done right, a performance review is one of the best opportunities to encourage and support high performers and constructively improve your middle- and lower-tier workers. ~ Kathryn Minshew

Ninety to ninety-five percent of people will withdraw to the comfort zone when what they try doesn't work. Only that small percentage, 5 or 10 percent, will continually improve themselves; they will continually push themselves out into the zone of discomfort, and these are always the highest performers in every field. ~ Brian Tracy

There's my personal life, my sensitive side, and then me as a performer, sexy and energised and fun. ~ Beyonce Knowles

I continue to be very shy. I think a lot of actors and performers are really weird, shy people working it out onstage. I don't know why that is. ~ Samantha Bee

Comedy is a funny thing, and it's really not like any other art form in that it's very specialized and varied in it's content, but generic in it's title. You would never go to a club just to see "Live music," you would go to a jazz club to see jazz, a blues club to see blues, etc. But when you go to see "standup comedy," if you don't know the performers material, you really don't have any idea what you're gonna get. ~ Joe Rogan

Great performers require a measure of confidence that would strike many as absurd, unfounded, and downright irrational. They believe in themselves utterly, without question, even when everyone else is questioning how good (or sane) they are. ~ John Eliot

I don't consider myself a stand-up comedian. I consider myself a performer; a comic as opposed to stand-up comedian. Stand-up comedians stand there and do their bits; I break every rule in creation. If there's a rule that can be broken in stand-up, I'll do it. ~ J. B. Smoove

The top quartile, those who did the exercise most rapidly and effectively, work in space that is substantially different from that of the bottom quartile. The top performers' space is quieter, more private, better protected from interruption, and there is more of it. What ~ Tom DeMarco

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things. ~ Nat King Cole

I believe myself to be a worthwhile and inventive performer in my own right. [And] I want to be known for what I do best. ~ George Carlin

If you were a performer that only had an acoustic instrument, back in the day you couldn't hide behind your guitar pedals or the production or the vibe. There was performance and then there was the song, and that was all that you had. ~ Will Sheff

It's so interesting, you know, whenever you read the accounts of composers playing their own music, that they had very different priorities than performers. None of them seemed too concerned about the plastic realization of their music. ~ Helene Grimaud

Most performers reinvent themselves. Madonna, Michael Jackson, P. Diddy. They reinvent themselves into different kinds of images. Elvis [Presley] was always himself, an original, and he never tried to be anything but that. ~ Pat Boone

A price drop in a good stock is only a tragedy if you sell at that price and never buy more. To me, a price drop is an opportunity to load up on bargains from among your worst performers and your laggards that show promise. If you can't convince yourself 'When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a buyer' and banish forever the fatal thought 'When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a seller,' then you'll never make a decent profit in stocks. ~ Peter Lynch

A wonderful, warm, positive individual who exhibits the values that are prerequisite to a significant faculty post in higher education, I think that it is an absolutely extraordinary and bold career move that Darwin has made in leaving the Orchestra and embarking on the trajectory of a solo performer/educator. And what a marvelous thing it is for Detroit to be able to welcome home a successful native son - one in whom the community can take pride, and one who will serve as an inspiration to a younger generation of aspiring performers eager to make their mark in the world. ~ David Cerone

What all my years in improvisation taught is that - if you're going to grow as a performer - you have to try some new things. You've got to be willing to take a few risks. ~ Jack McBrayer

Secretly, I'm in awe of Broadway performers. I would love to perform at that level. I love the exchange with the audience. I love being able to sing and dance to express your emotions and the community and friendships that are formed when working on a theater piece. ~ Brianna Brown

I have more contact with people who consume, for lack of a better word, my product than any other performers. ~ Penn Jillette

There is plenty of research and data clearly demonstrating that while employees may choose to join an organization because of the brand, benefits, and other perceived rewards, they invariably choose to leave an organization because of their relationship with their immediate supervisor. I would also suggest that people choose to leave when they experience a toxic work environment and when they do not have a strong relationship (an Ally) among their peers. Employees, especially talented high performers, always have a ~ Morag Barrett

The most evocative thing to me is probably when a writer and a group of performers can collectively put together something compelling that asks the really simple question: 'How do we live?' ~ John Malkovich

I wanted to be a performer, not someone who introduced other performers. ~ Brian Dunkleman

There are plenty of actors who've caught the singing bug and vice versa, but with musical performers, you're constantly a persona - which is something I love about acting: you play a character, you leave and you get to be yourself again. ~ Freddie Stroma

Milton stood among his staff, shaking hands, memorising names. He already knew them in a way - he understood this breed backward and had foreseeen how his speech would be received. Journalists were as touchy as Cabernet performers and as stubborn as factory machinists. He couldn't help smiling. ~ Tom Rachman

I don't think that many performers necessarily want to see their audience empowered. I think a lot of performers, no different from priests, need the hierarchy. Modern, celebrity-driven entertainment turns the stage into an altar, and so many celebrities refuse to be removed from those altars once they manage to ascend. They will not be taken down - the Goddess is offended ... As a storyteller in the old tradition, you held an important place at the circle. Your position was fluid, not necessarily permanent, but it demanded that you respected the others witnessing your performance as much as they respected you. All storytellers, all troubadours worth their salt knew their myths. ~ Tori Amos

I think a performer should do his work and then shut up. ~ Richard Widmark

Avoiding automaticity through continual practice is another way of saying that great performers are always getting better. This is why the most devoted can stay at the top of their field for far longer than most people would think possible. ~ Geoff Colvin

There she remained; and yet wasn't there at all, was all the time away, infinitely far away, on holiday; on holiday in some other world, where the music of the radio was a labyrinth of sonorous colours,a sliding, palpitating labyrinth, that led (by what beautifully inevitable windings) to a bright centre of absolute conviction; where the dancing images of the television box were the performers in some indescribably delicious all-singing feely; where the dripping patchouli was more than scent_was the sun, was a million sexophones, was Popé making love, only much more so, incomparably more, and without end. ~ Aldous Huxley

The audience plays a huge part in how a piece will actually form. They really allow the performers to walk a tightrope in a way that never seems to happen in the privacy of your own four walls. I'm listening to the audience, and they're listening to me. ~ Evelyn Glennie

The stage is close to being in the middle of the hall, so that the performers are surrounded by the listeners. I feel that we are all experiencing the music together. ~ Emanuel Ax

My goal is to be remembered as a human being and as a great performer. ~ Bobby Darin

Ordinary performers have giant TVs. Extraordinary performers have huge libraries. ~ Robin Sharma

Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are in my opinion more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality. Freedom of speech, freedom of religious thought, and the right to due process for composers, performers and retailers are imperiled if the PMRC and the major labels consummate this nasty bargain. ~ Frank Zappa

Shawn Michaels is quite simply the greatest performer in WWE history. ~ Chris Jericho

Bands today have to learn their craft by putting the hard work in that we did when we were young performers. ~ Elton John

Reading a piece of poetry with no beat in front of 20 people is way more challenging than rocking for 10,000 people. ~ Macklemore

The best shows have a clear idea of what they want to achieve, where the performers have the ability to disrupt normality and engage directly with audiences of all ages. A company who can do just that (apparently effortlessly) is dotComedy. ~ Lyn Gardner

I so miss musical theater. Secretly, I'm in awe of Broadway performers. ~ Brianna Brown

We shouldn't feel restricted by our sexuality, and our sexuality doesn't have to be a cultural choice. That's an amazing variety of music within those five main performers. ~ Neil Tennant

I'm so not a performer, my drive to do [acting] is so different to other people - and I'm not discrediting that, they're born performers, they're people that you love to watch just be themselves. I like to be a little bit more in control. I like to make something. ~ Kristen Stewart

I've worked with Emily Skinner and I've seen Linda Balgord's work. I saw Harvey Keitel at the call-backs. But generally I don't know many people. They're not only good performers; they're really good singers! This show is for people who have more of a history in reading music. From what I already know about the ensemble, it's going to be great. And I can't wait to meet the rest of them. They're the real deal. ~ Max Von Essen

Entitlement is a precarious place from which to create or perform - it projects the idea that you have nothing to prove, nothing to claim, nothing to show but self-satisfaction, a smug boredom. It breeds ambivalence. It's as if instead of having to prove they are something, these musicians prove they aren't anything. It's an inverted dynamic, one that sets performers up to fail, but also gives them a false sense of having already arrived. I don't understand how someone would not push, challenge, or at least be present, how anyone could get onstage and not give everything. ~ Carrie Brownstein

When I got into comedy, which was really for acting, I would see the guys who would be considered great today. They were great, but after a few minutes I could get kind of bored because they wouldn't move around. The dress code was boring to me. I didn't want to see the guy next door when I'm watching a performer. I wanted to see someone I would pay a ticket for. ~ Andrew Dice Clay

All the great performers I have worked with are fueled by a personal dream. ~ John Eliot

I came back to New York after college like any number of struggling performers, and you just find that niche where you can have some sort of impact. And for me that turned out to be comedy. ~ Billy Eichner

The first thing I look for, in addition to a performer's range, is a performer's look in comparison to the character. That is very important to me as a casting director. ("The Making of Dual Mania: Filmmaking Chicago Style," 2018) ~ Cat Ellington

It's really a grand old, legendary theatre where the spirits of like Judy Garland and all these great performers have been. The clubs are way more underground. ~ Deborah Cox

I don't like when performers rag on their ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend in absentia. If they're not there, it just feels rude ... I'm never going to say anything personal about myself on stage. That's my new goal. ~ David Rees

After university, I was working as a stylist in the Paris theatres when I had a flash of inspiration. I made necklaces from the bikinis designed for the cabaret performers of Folies Bergeres. I was so happy with them that it was only then that I sought out formal training in jewelry. ~ Paloma Picasso

When I watch comedy I love to see that pleasure in the performer's eye and that sense of cheek - and even those moments when you can see someone is trying not to laugh. ~ Mathew Baynton

Write your own music and write frequently. Go to as many live shows as you can as well (of bands you enjoy of course). You can learn a lot watching other performers. ~ Dia Frampton

My sympathies go out to the young performers today because they are under a microscope in a way I wasn't. Now everybody's got a camera phone and can record at will or take pictures of you. It's just a different world. I don't know how I would have fared back then. ~ Ricky Schroder

I think performers are all show-offs anyway, especially musicians. Unless you show off, you're not going to get noticed. ~ Elton John

Throughout my whole life, as a performer, I've never played with a band. I've always played alone, so I was never required to stay in rhythm or anything. So it was a real different experience for me to start playing with a band. There were so many basic things for me to learn. ~ Steve Martin

Top performers take action now, they move, they execute. ~ Tony Jeary

The idea was to anger the drama kids, not hurt any of them. I'm not a deer hunter. I decided to prey on their most basic, cherished fear. "This play sucks! No one likes it. Not even the junior high bloggers will review this lame excuse for a Moliere," I yelled, and chucked tomatillos at the stager, over, under, and past the ducking, traumatized performers in French aristocrat costumes. ~ Sarah Skilton

My family aren't performers. They're just normal people. They don't understand this entertainment world. They just think it's mental. They have no idea what I'm doing in America. ~ Jay Ryan

I'd like to think I could physically manage doing that, but I don't think it feels authentic to the kind of performer that I am. I think that, for me, being stationary and just sort of singing the songs seems to be the most connected and authentic expression for me on stage. ~ Sara Bareilles

If there's one big thing you can take from Amy Poehler as a performer, it's committing, full on. ~ Andy Daly

There are few performers who would have had the audacity to even bring up the fact that they had been poorly reviewed. ~ Sandra Bernhard

In medieval times most singers, dancers, and musical performers were, at least in origin, slaves. ~ Bernard Lewis

Performers are so vulnerable. They're frightened of humiliation, sure their work will be crap. I try to make an environment where it's warm, where it's OK to fail - a kind of home, I suppose. ~ Jane Campion

In fact, porn can literally kill you. Since 2000, there have been at least 34 drug-related deaths among performers... ~ Shelley Lubben

One of my favorite places in San-Francisco is Aunt Charlies drag show. You pay $3 and see shows that literally give you goose bumps and bring you to tears. As a performer, you know they're giving 100% and you can't help but cry. ~ Christopher Owens

That's the most comfortable place for me. In the beginning, yes, I was nervous going on stage. I was not a natural performer. I really had to acquire that skill. ~ Jerry Seinfeld

It's a very different show because of the elements that we're putting in. There's so many different styles of comedy, but Mr. Show was unique to Bob and David - two of the most brilliant performers and writers there are. Their show was based on them. Our show is a bit more broad. We have a cast of 7, we have guests. We can be slightly more topical. ~ B. J. Porter

If it's total freedom, I guess the ultimate thing you can go into is total silence between the audience and performer, with the performer projecting something he doesn't even have to play. ~ Alice Cooper

But what happens if and when writers begin to outnumber readers? What happens when writing becomes more attractive than reading? Will we become -- or are we already -- a nation of performers with no audience? ~ Heidi Pitlor

Obviously when I'm put in a situation where there is a lot of attention on me, it's this weird dichotomy - I like it, because I feel like I'm a natural born performer. But I do feel the most vulnerable. ~ Tyler Blackburn

An actor stands in front of a camera onstage, and he controls time and space for the audience. He tells them how long this will take, where to look, when to look, what to think about it. And good performers should be able to do their part with the sound off. ~ John Michael Higgins

For me the voice is the most important, but making your singing believable makes a great performer. ~ Hollie Cavanagh

The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It's not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it's deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft. ~ David Brooks

A high performer is someone who says, 'I want to be the best at what I'm doing.' ~ Brendon Burchard

We are not called to be entertainers or performers, we are called to praise and worship our creator. 'Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of salvation.' (Psalms95:1). ~ Euginia Herlihy

The role of an orchestra in the 21st century isn't just playing, it's about developing future audiences and performers. ~ Leonard Slatkin

I knew I finally made it as a performer when I began hearing rumors that I was gay. ~ Dustin Hoffman

If you could trade the bottom 10 percent of your team for new hires, would your organization improve? If so, then you need to look at the hiring process that yielded those low performers and see how you can improve it. ~ Eric Schmidt

I don't have the desire that I think a lot of performers feel - to get the applause. It's not life or death for me. I love it and it's exciting, but it's not something I crave or miss, so I don't need to perform; I don't have that desire. I like to sing, and I love doing what I'm doing, but it's not a dire need. ~ Olivia Newton-John

Honestly, I'm a shallow performer. I just go with the text and feel my way around it. There's not a whole lot of shaping. ~ George Wendt

Society has definitely gotten to the point where everybody has to comment on anything, and if you want to stay sane as a performer, you're better off not reading that stuff. ~ Doug Benson

Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person - hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre - into an outstanding performer. ~ Peter Drucker

Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people. Strong performers are intrinsically motivated by performance, and when they see their efforts impeded by carrying extra weight, they eventually become frustrated. ~ James C. Collins

If I feel really authentically in my body, then everything seems to click. But, sometimes I can only get into that, if the atmosphere is already conducive to that with the sound and all that stuff. There are moments where, as a performer, you're on stage and you feel like you're exactly where you're meant to be in the universe. It's a rare and beautiful thing when it happens. ~ Ben Lee

The myth that if you don't start early, you might as well not start, tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The music-making world that young people confront reminds me a lot of the world of school sports. After a lot of weeding out, in the end you've got a varsity with a few performers and an awful lot of people on the sidelines thinking, "Gee, it's too bad I wasn't good enough." We need to be careful about that. There seems to be an unspoken idea, in instruction of the young, that the people who start the fastest will go the farthest. But that's not only an unproven theory; it's not even a tested theory. The assumption that the steeper the learning curve, the higher it will go, is also unfounded. If we did things a little differently, we might find out that people whose learning curves were much slower might later on go up just as high or higher. ~ John Holt

You have to remember we're just performers, that we seldom have any kind of grasp on real life. ~ Tom Kenny

I'm thinking in terms of a point of departure, a field of action for performers to express an expressive need of mine which hopefully the context of music would convey. ~ John Eaton