People will always be around to tell you you're no good or you're wrong or unwise to keep doing what you want to do. They're wrong. They're always wrong. Keep going.
Elaine StritchRead
I don't know what the hell I'm doing up there half the time. These performers that go on about their technique and craft - oh, puleeze! How boring! I don't know what technique means. But I do know what experience is. I know in my gut when I've done a scene right.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of authenticity and feeling over technical skill in performance.
Elaine Stritch's quote highlights the value of genuine experience in the art of performance, suggesting that connecting with the audience and trusting one's instincts is far more significant than adhering to technical rules or definitions. She dismisses an overemphasis on technique, indicating that true artistry comes from a deep, instinctual understanding of the craft acquired through personal experience and emotional insight.
Themes
PerformanceArtistryInstinctExperienceAuthenticity
In practice
Example use cases
An actor could use this quote during a workshop to inspire fellow performers to trust their instincts.
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There is rarely a creative man who does not have to pay a high price for the divine spark of his greatest gifts... the human element is frequently bled for the benefit of the creative element and to such an extent that it even brings out the bad qualities, as for instance, ruthless, naive egoism (so-called "auto-eroticism"), vanity, all kinds of vices-and all this in order to bring to the human I at least some life-strength, since otherwise it would perish of sheer inanition.
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It's hard to be the one that stands out when, you know, in a ballet company, you're trying to create unison and uniform when you're in a corps de ballet.
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Oh, I'm impressed with Lorraine Hansberry. She was a genius at whose feet I could sit.
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Translation is a form of passive aggression. In doing it, a writer chooses to forgo original authorship so as to play havoc with a foreign original in a process of imitation, zigzagging between the foreign and receiving languages but in the last analysis cancelling the first in favor of the second.
Lawrence VenutiRead