Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey FiersteinRead
You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theater because it is an unmerciful life. It's six days a week. It's eight performances a week. And that's doing the exact same thing over and over and over again.
Interpretation
Passion is essential for a successful career in theater due to its demanding nature.
Harvey Fierstein emphasizes the importance of having a deep love for theater, as the profession is exceptionally demanding. With performances almost every day and the repetitive nature of the work, only true passion can sustain someone through the challenges that come with a career in this field.
In practice
In a speech at a theater opening, one could emphasize the importance of passion with this quote.
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
CBS really wants me on TV. That's their aim. My aim is to have an all-gay sitcom someday, with heterosexuals as token guest stars. Let them be the next-door neighbors for a change.
Theater is my temple and my religion and my act of faith. Strangers sit in a room together and believe together.
Theater has to resonate in your heart in a way that movies don't.
I really am a theater person. That means you put something out there, and you let it go. Tomorrow night is a new performance.
One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.
I try to tell the best story, and the story that has some heart and some genuine terror and some social commentary and some comedy and some romance and some sex and some violence.
In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.
I want to be an improviser, and I've worked very hard at that. It's an art. You don't just play whatever comes into your head; you have to be very deliberate about what you do.
On those who overanalyze his music: When you tear the wings off a butterfly, it is no longer a butterfly
On the whole, dialogue is the most difficult thing, without any doubt. It's very difficult, unfortunately. You have to detach yourself from the notion of a lifelike quality. You see, actually lifelike, tape-recorded dialogue like this has very little to do with good novel dialogue. It's a matter of getting that awful tyranny of mimesis out of your mind, which is difficult.
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