Sometimes, when the material is really good, you put expectations on yourself to make it the best possible show. You're not just serving up the regular hash and doing your job and going home.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of high standards in artistic expression and the pressure that comes with it.
Peter Dinklage discusses the burden of expectations that artists face when they encounter exceptional material. Rather than treating their work as just a routine job, they feel compelled to elevate their performance, striving to deliver something extraordinary.
In practice
In a speech at an art gala, one could quote this to inspire artists to pursue excellence.
It's a shame how a lot of actors use theater as a stepping stone to film and television work; I think it shouldn't be treated that way. Maybe it's narcissism or something. I think we should always go back to it. I try and do a play a year, and I think that's really helped me.
Any swagger is just defense. When you're reminded so much of who you are by people - not a fame thing, but with my size, constantly, growing up - you just either curl up in a corner in the dark or you wear it proudly, like armor or something. You can turn it on its head and use it yourself before anybody else gets a chance.
Every person my size has a different life, a different history. Different ways of dealing with it. Just because I'm seemingly O.K. with it, I can't preach how to be O.K. with it. I don't think I still am O.K. with it. There's days when I'm not.
I think actors get too comfortable. I like being uncomfortable as an actor because it keeps you alive. I don't know, I think it's important.
Dwarves are still the butt of jokes. It's one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice.
Call me a midget, but just be real. I am all for correct terms, but please don't tiptoe around feelings. Don't be too careful, because that shuts you off from people.
I was particularly proud of my performance as the Joker. I considered it a piece of pop art.
Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.
When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch.
Rent is about a community celebrating life, in the face of death and AIDS, at the turn of the century.
Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.
I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.
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