What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.
Martin ShortRead
All you're trying to do in an improvisation is get as much material as possible for the editing room.
Interpretation
Improvisation is about gathering ideas and material for later refinement.
This quote emphasizes that the essence of improvisation lies in the process of generating a wealth of ideas and content, which can then be shaped and polished during the editing phase. It suggests that spontaneity is key, and the initial bursts of creativity lead to more refined and deliberate outcomes.
In practice
This quote could be shared in a workshop on creative improvisation.
What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.
I've always thought one of the tricks of being an actor for a long time is keeping yourself interested once you've figured out how to pay the rent.
I've chosen to treat my life more like a party than something to stress about.
I hate to lull the audience into letting them think that something is something. It's always fun to defy expectations.
My mother was the concert master of the symphony. Absurdity and eccentricity were not criticized.
It's possible for me to make a bad movie out of a good script, but I can't make a good movie from a bad script.
Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. Its heartwood is calligraphy - the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand - and its roots reach into living soil, though its branches may be hung each year with new machines. So long as the root lives, typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise.
It’s such a fun job, and it can be silly and light and about making people laugh. I think I was doing it a disservice by thinking it’s not something ultimately important. I always was saying, ‘I’m not saving lives; I’m not a brain surgeon.’ And that’s true—I’m not saving anyone from any life-threatening illnesses. But I get to tell stories, and that’s a pretty important task.
I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.
In any society, the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a painter or writer cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of non-conformity alive. Thanks to them the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is important.
A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.