Performer Quotes

“Fans are what make a performer and I've always taken them seriously.”

— Charley Pride

“As a standup performer, I'm onstage, and it's important how the audience is looking at me. I'm looking at whether they're leaning forward or not, those types of things. You read an energy. And it's the same thing in a scene with other actors.”

— Jerrod Carmichael

“Madrid is enjoyed most from the ground, exploring your way through its narrow streets that always lead to some intriguing park, market, tapas bar or street performer. Each night we'd leave our hotel to begin a new adventure in Madrid and nine out of 10 times, we'd walk through the Plaza Mayor.”

— Emilio Estevez

“I loved all fantasy, and I always thought that the ideal job as a performer and an entertainer would be to take on a mythical character, you know? Make someone up. Give them a voice, a mannerism, whatever. I always thought that that was the coolest way to do.”

— Erica Cerra

“I really believed that if I could play that character, who is grounded in the earth and the history of the United States - not the kind of role I usually play - it would help me change the perception out there and my own perception of what I can accomplish as a performer.”

— Andrea Martin

“A lot of athletes have star quality, but they just can't perform in front of a camera. So no matter how good-looking you are, no matter what kind of presence you have, you still have to be able to be a convincing performer to become a star.”

— Richard D. Zanuck

“When you're a performer, you have to please a large audience. And when you're in politics, you have to please a large audience, too.”

— Shirley Temple

“Broadway has changed tremendously from the early days when the shows were referred to as musical comedies. Musical Theater is now a more expanded art form. Back then, singer/actors were not the norm. From the 60's to now, it is necessary to do it all to be a consummate Broadway performer.”

— Betty Buckley

“I felt that, in retrospect, there was a time in the late Seventies, after I had a string of hits and successes, as a performer and a recording artist, that I wasn't saying anything.”

— Boz Scaggs

“I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation. I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.”

— Brendan Coyle

“For the past few years, I was the more visible Asian performer, and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it's possible to actually reach success doing movies.”

— Joan Chen

“There are so many people in film and television that get between a performer and the audience, and that's frustrating.”

— Tom Conti

“You get callbacks, and they either give it to what they call a 'name' performer, or they decide to go in an entirely different direction.”

— Tanya Fischer

“I worked really hard in college, and I came out a completely different person and performer than when I went in. I did the work, and I found a craft.”

— Merle Dandridge

“I'm not like a performer type.”

— Dave Attell

“It would be difficult to have any unfulfilled ambitions because I don't have any ambitions. I've never been that kind of performer.”

— John Hurt

“The cardinal rule for any performer is that they should know themselves before they enter the spotlight, and I didn't. I was just Neil and I did what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to get married, so I got married. I was supposed to get a job, so I looked for work.”

— Neil Diamond

“A well-rounded performer will listen to all kinds of music. I like classical, Middle Eastern, and rock a lot.”

— Patti LuPone

“Emperor Sid Caesar is gone to eternity himself now. He takes with him the gratitude of every one of us who first learned the relief of laughter from this genuinely great performer.”

— Ben Stein

“No matter how much money I make, no matter how many hit songs. I still perform like a street performer.”

— R. Kelly

“I went on Ellen once, and even then, I was just a bad performer. It was nerve-racking at first playing in front of all her fans who really wanted to see her. Her fans are so young and accepting to new people, and it helped that they knew 'Marvin Gaye,' too.”

— Charlie Puth

“I guess you could say it's always been my destiny to be a performer.”

— Lady Gaga

“I'm not a natural performer or exhibitionist. When I was younger, I hated the focus, and it made me feel strange.”

— Lana Del Rey

“To the general public, show business may just mean the artistic part, but the dollar and cents element is the reality every performer has to face.”

— Liza Minnelli

“I do like Jason Statham as a person and as an actor. I think he's a great performer, and he delivers every time.”

— Luke Evans

“It took time to really build myself a reputation as a good live performer, a musician and an artist.”

— Ellie Goulding

“Superwoman is more of a performer, which Lilly isn't. Having said that, I guess both of them are completely over the top, dramatic and full of energy.”

— Lilly Singh

“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

“I initially told people I wanted to be a dancer and ultimately a "Rockette." I didn't really know what a musical theatre performer was other than the Shirley Temple type.”

— Erica Schroeder

“I'm particularly keen on promoting this [Nikolai] Medtner piece, Night Wind, because I feel it is a fantastic work that hasn't been given its due yet. Admittedly, it's difficult for both the performer and the listener. The work is quite dense, comparatively long, as these things go, and demands rather active listening. But it's gripping, and I believe it should be heard much more than it has been.”

— Marc-Andre Hamelin

“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

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

— Andy Daly

“I'm used to getting reviews. I try not to read much because you'll always focus on the bad ones and not remember the good ones, so it can be a negative thing for a performer.”

— Sam Trammell

“To be a top performer you have to be passionately committed to what you're doing and insanely confident about your ability to pull it off.”

— John Eliot

“When I get hired as an actor as opposed to a writer, one of things that's exciting for me is doing stuff I wouldn't normally do myself. So whether it's a kid's movie or a voice in animation or in this case - where I just get to be silly, it's a different kind of comedy for me. As a performer, it's a different pleasure than when you're writing or directing. As a performer, you're just in the hands of the director and you go with whatever they want to do.”

— Stephen Merchant

“Go with your gut every single time. It's never, ever wrong. Even if feels like everybody else is telling you that you need to do this or do that. Your gut is your artist and who you are as a person and what makes you special, and what makes you an interesting performer. Never try to be something you're not.”

— Tatiana Maslany

“I like being a musician that's also a fly on the wall. I like people coming in the room and doing what they do and then leaving. I like attention, but it actually gives me a little less to work with as a performer if people are editing themselves and not being them.”

— Travis Morrison

“When you're casting a movie and when you're shooting a film, the eyes are the most important feature of any performer, really. Any great actor literally knows exactly how to use their eyes, and even as a filmmaker I love shooting huge close-ups because it's those eyes that mean so much to me.”

— Peter Jackson

“I knew I wanted to be a performer really early on, like around 8 years old. I did tons of acting and loved being in front of people.”

— Kate Brown

“I like playing music. I don't always like the feeling of people looking at me. I don't think I'm, like, a natural performer, but I'm getting better.”

— Dan Bejar

“Talking about my personal life onstage, I've realized I'm not one of those comics who can do that. I can allude to it but I don't want to be a confessional performer ...”

— David Rees

“I think probably the most difficult challenge was just the climb and rise in show business because I went through my entire twenties with some success as a comedy writer but not much as a performer. And you have to be kind of informed and naive at the same time.”

— Steve Martin

“But on balance, a performer wants to feel that there's something there which stands out because you put a lot of effort into it, a lot of energy and a lot of yourself into something. I feel pretty successful about some movies I've been in that have not been greeted with a lot of enthusiasm and I do trust my own criteria.”

— Ben Affleck

“That heightened dynamic can produce interesting, funny ideas that are phrased in ways that surprise even you, as the performer.”

— Ted Alexandro

“I always was a performer, from the time I was little. It was always a natural place for me to be.”

— Billy Crystal

“I always hesitate when people call me a musician.I have had no musical training. I can't play anything. I really think of myself as a performer. It's always been writing for me. I evolved with my band in rock 'n' roll through poetry, not through music.”

— Patti Smith

“For a long time, I've distinguished between entertainer and performer and entertainer and artist. To me, an entertainer is someone who pleases others, and an artist tries to please himself.”

— George Carlin

“Streets crowded with people strolling, or sitting at outdoor cafes. And always, talking, gesturing, singing, laughing. I liked Rome immediately.Everybody was a performer.”

— Kirk Douglas

“Mark Twain was so good with crowds that he became, in competition with singers and dancers and actors and acrobats, one of the most popular performers of his time. It is so unusual, and so psychologically unlikely, too, for a great writer to be a great performer, too ...”

— Kurt Vonnegut

“I still get excited performing live. when you see the immediate reaction from a crowd, its like being a theater performer, its something you can't get from being a writer or being an ad man ... its almost ritualistic.”

— Marilyn Manson