Menzel Quotes & Sayings

I have a completely worthless degree: a BS in Photojournalism from Boston University (BU). With this degree, I suppose I could have gotten a job teaching grade school kids how to photograph their relatives, but knowing about B&W photo processing and developing and how to shoot a picture story is good basic info that every photographer should have. — Peter Menzel

There has to be a balance between power and vulnerability. That's something I feel I have in my own life, something I struggle with and - on a good day - like about myself. — Idina Menzel

All performers get on stage because they need to feel love from an audience. I might appear confident, but those three seconds before I get out there, I'm a mess. But I have to take the risk; otherwise, I'd be miserable and would feel like I wasn't seeing through my personal destiny. — Idina Menzel

I'm a decent tennis player. Good backhand. — Idina Menzel

Having a partner who is your wife traveling with you can be great. We each have our roles in the work and then can help each other out on the emotional front when things get stressful, which they are. — Peter Menzel

Everybody thinks it's going to be so glamorous, so cool, you're on 'Glee,' you know, a hit show or whatever. — Idina Menzel

I don't quite know how to put it into words, but I feel for the audience that I have; I know them. — Idina Menzel

I think as women, the smarter and more powerful we are, the more it can be threatening and alienating to other people, more than with men. That's something we need to support each other with. — Idina Menzel

I always like to sing barefoot, but when I first started doing these dates with the symphonies, I of course thought I should clean up my act, being a Jewish girl from Long Island with a little bit of a trucker mouth. So I wore a gown and some high heels. — Idina Menzel

The summer of 1966, I hitch-hiked alone for two months all over Europe instead of working on a farm in Spain. It was a big game to see how much I could see on $400. This got me hooked on traveling. — Peter Menzel

I have a wide spectrum, a wide demographic. I have the young girls, I have the gay community, I have many regular theatergoers. I do feel a tremendous responsibility and pride to be a role model for some of these young people. — Idina Menzel

That's what I love about songwriting - that you can write something about your own experiences and think it's completely specific to you, and then people can take away a completely different meaning for themselves. I really love that. I think you've been successful at writing a song when it has a larger life than yourself. — Idina Menzel

I would like to get another job in London or tour there. I miss my friends. — Idina Menzel

If I want to tuck my son into bed and read him a story, but that means I have to take a red-eye to get to a concert - which I would never think of doing otherwise - that's just the way it is. Even if I can't hit the note that night, I got to tuck my child in! — Idina Menzel

I think I hid my singing talent from a lot of my friends at school because I didn't want to alienate anyone. If everyone was singing along in the car to a Madonna song, I didn't join in because when we're younger we're afraid of sticking out or showing off, when in fact we should own those things that make us really unique. — Idina Menzel

To me a translator is very, very important. If the fixer is also the translator, so much the better. I have known photographers who didn't speak the language and would work in a place for weeks without one, getting by on common sense and smiles. But how many situations did they miss because they couldn't talk to someone and get the back story on details, small daily life things, etc. — Peter Menzel

I fell in love with traveling and thought being a photographer would be an interesting way to travel and make a living. — Peter Menzel

Before digital, I spent thirty years shooting color transparencies, which are very unforgiving of exposure. A half stop can make or break a good photo on slide film. — Peter Menzel

People have these incredible expectations. So instead of being inspired by, say, Joni Mitchell's music, I look at it and say to myself, 'I'm going to quit - why would I think of writing or performing after listening to that?' — Idina Menzel

Freelancing in Somalia during their civil war and in Kuwait right after the first Bush War, I had some rather intense experiences that made life in the U.S. seem rather shallow and superfluous. — Peter Menzel

I like to move as much as possible and look at reflections, weird angles, subjects from airplanes and cranes. I feel sorry for the Jabba the Hut types who can't do this. Once an obese student told me that he wanted to be a war photographer. I said, "Really?" and then I shot him. — Peter Menzel

As a senior in high school my counselor recommended that I soften my science and math direction with an art course. Fortunately my high school offered a new course in B&W photography, so I opted for that instead of art, towards which I had an aversion. Composition is something that comes pretty naturally to me and I appreciate ordered chaos: the photo class turned out to be fun. — Peter Menzel

Getting up way in advance of dawn is always a good idea. Nearly ninety-nine percent of the time when I have gotten up in the middle of the night for a shoot, something good always presents itself to offset the nagging tiredness and discomfort of losing sleep. — Peter Menzel

As a mom, I don't have much time for beauty. — Idina Menzel

I'm more comfortable revealing myself than hiding behind metaphors. I respond to artists who reveal something of themselves. — Idina Menzel

I can sing 'Happy Birthday' to you in twelve different places, but one of them is going to make you feel a certain thing, maybe it's a vulnerability, maybe an innocence, maybe another way is sexy and soulful or bluesy whatever it is, but with singers, exploring keys, I think, is important. — Idina Menzel

After 'Rent,' I tried to make a record, and it didn't work out, and it was the Broadway community that welcomed me back. It's where I feel the most understood, most at home. — Idina Menzel

The one who tried too hard, the outsider, the oddball. Yeah, that was me. — Idina Menzel

I'm such a fan of Idina Menzel! I think she's made a wonderful career in this business. I love her so much, and any role she's played, I'd love to be able to follow in her footsteps. — Lea Michele

I used to be someone that needed nine hours of sleep; otherwise, I didn't think I was going to sound good when I sang, and I was very disciplined and anal about my preparation. When you become a parent, there just isn't that time, you know? — Idina Menzel

As much as I appreciate people putting me in the category of these very acrobatic belters, I feel like my strength is my ... interpretation and my truthfulness with songs, and I don't want young people to think it's all about the high notes that they have to hit. — Idina Menzel

I pretty much have no life outside of the theatre. I go home every night, and I put the TV on, and I veg out and order food. — Idina Menzel

I don't shoot many corporate or commercial jobs, but when you do, you had better have someone helping who has done it before. — Peter Menzel

A lot of my fans are young and hip and enjoy my pop album and know the lyrics to those songs as well, which is a real compliment to me. — Idina Menzel

I love my husband very much. I knew it was real true love because I felt like I could be myself around that person. Your true, true innermost authentic self, the stuff you don't let anyone else see, if you can be that way with that person, I think that that's real love. — Idina Menzel

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small, and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all. — Idina Menzel

RAW is very forgiving. I was photographing a farm woman in Ecuador cooking over a small fire and my fill flash didn't go off a few times. I was about to delete the RAW files but decided to play with the curves first because I like the composition. It turned out that the image, although underexposed by two stops, was better than the fill-flashed images because the fire was the only source of illumination and it looked more real. — Peter Menzel

I was once an extra in a Bruce Springsteen video where they did a live performance video at Tramps. I forget the name of the song. — Idina Menzel

Barbra Streisand, for one, is one of my idols. I've listened to her since I was a little kid - the first album I ever bought was 'A Star is Born' with Kris Kristofferson. — Idina Menzel

As an artist, you have to express yourself. I make no excuses for my versatility. I grew up singing classical arias, but I love rock n' roll and jazz standards. — Idina Menzel

I would love to work with Matt Damon. — Idina Menzel

The truth is I love musical theatre and always have. — Idina Menzel

We are never doing anyone any favors by withholding our gifts from the world. It's scary to be fierce, but you can't compromise that for fear of losing those around you. — Idina Menzel

Scientists are usually nice, organized, logical people who are very cooperative. I always learn a lot of science while shooting science stories and it helps to be able to speak intelligently to a subject about his or her field of work, i.e., do your homework before the photography. — Peter Menzel

With young people, I always say, 'You're not doing anyone any favours by withholding your power.' As women, we do that a lot because we are afraid of being misunderstood or perceived as too strong. But the older I'm getting, the more I realise you have to let that go. — Idina Menzel

My story is so boring: Long Island Jewish parents take their daughters to Broadway. — Idina Menzel

There are lots of things I'm acquainting myself with now to be a more well-rounded person. — Idina Menzel

Who am I, if I'm not this singer with big high notes? I identify with my voice. But I'm more than just the acrobatics. — Idina Menzel

Things happen for a reason, and in their own time. — Idina Menzel

I set the bar high because I don't want to do just any other show just to keep working. I want to do something special that means something to people and speaks to them. Those kinds of opportunities don't come along all the time! — Idina Menzel

I have the potential to be very strong and powerful, sometimes angry, sometimes passionate. I also can be shy and withhold that because I am afraid. I don't want to freak anybody out with my passion ... So I struggle with that all the time. — Idina Menzel

'Rent,' for me, was a significant time in my life because it was my first break. It was my first professional job. I also met my husband in that cast, Taye Diggs. — Idina Menzel

The sky in Texas is the most amazing sky in the whole country, I think, like you can see more sky in Texas than you can see anywhere else in the world. — Idina Menzel

Believe me, I don't take that lightly. To have struck gold twice with 'Rent' and 'Wicked.' I know it's rare and I'm very lucky to have that kind of phenomenon in my life. They're not just great shows, they're shows that resonate with young audiences. — Idina Menzel

When you sit back and you just do what you love, things happen — Idina Menzel

The first album I ever owned was 'A Star is Born.' — Idina Menzel

I always like to sing barefoot. — Idina Menzel

After I discovered my degree in photojournalism would only get me a job in a camera store, I taught myself lighting. I read tons of magazines and books and studied the photos trying to figure out how they were done. I bought some flash equipment and played around until I figured out how to make a subject look as I envisioned it should look. — Peter Menzel

My interest in science was excited at age nine by an article on astronomy in National Geographic; the author was Donald Menzel of the Harvard Observatory. For the next few years, I regularly made star maps and snuck out at night to make observations from a locust tree in our back yard. — Dudley R. Herschbach

The cold never bothered me anyway. — Idina Menzel

That experience with 'Rent' went by so fast. I was younger. I didn't even really know what opening night was. And now I'm thinking back on the times I went to Broadway as a kid and the excitement I felt ... And I'm realizing that I'm actually a part of that, so I'm learning to take it in, 'cause so often I shrug it away. — Idina Menzel

I sing in many different colors and, hopefully, they add up to a great performance that, after you leave the theater, makes you feel like I've really shared something of myself. — Idina Menzel

The more success you get, you start to be harder on yourself or more afraid of the looking glass. You have to learn to build a thicker skin because people are paying more attention. — Idina Menzel

As I get older, I realize all I've done is sing and act and hone those skills. — Idina Menzel

It is so much better to get the right exposure than to have to mess around later with Photoshop. — Peter Menzel

Usually I'm pretty myopic. It's hard for me to multi-task, so to speak. If I'm in a show and I'm creating a character, I'm just completely into that. It's really hard for me to do anything else like write music. I have to sort of shut down different sides of my head and just focus. — Idina Menzel

I tend to have a pattern of playing misunderstood characters. — Idina Menzel

Along with enough sleep and taking proper supplements, I steam - in my steam shower. I find it's very healing, more than just your typical 'tea and honey.' — Idina Menzel

Nerves are good. They keep you alive. — Idina Menzel

I feel like I was born to do this ... I started working professionally as soon as I could, doing weddings and things like that in high school, while everyone else was having keg parties. I just felt destined to do it and really committed and driven; it was something that just felt right all my life. — Idina Menzel

Motherhood has helped me to stop overanalyzing things. It's been liberating because I used to be somewhat neurotic. I attribute that to having something bigger than myself. — Idina Menzel

The truth is I love musical theater and always have. — Idina Menzel

I wish I had read more and majored in literature rather than theatre. I think I would have been a better artist for it. I am trying to play catch-up now. — Idina Menzel

I don't think I ever really knew the right words to 'Hava Nagilah,' which isn't great for a Jewish singer. — Idina Menzel

I'm constantly trying to work on the person that I am and work on my shortcomings, and I guess I want people to know that it's ok to be a work in progress, as long as you keep trying to figure it out. But that search and that discovery is what makes life kind of rich, and it's what makes life rich ... period. — Idina Menzel

The past is in the past — Idina Menzel

I always use my husband's cocoa butter stuff. He has amazing skin! — Idina Menzel

You get to relive your childhood when you have a baby and you see these toys and these books you read when you were little - the innocence that you are able to maintain because you have to find that again in order to connect with your child keeps you in a special state of mind. — Idina Menzel

The intensity of being in front of all these incredible musicians and tremendous conductors in these elaborate halls can be overwhelming. — Idina Menzel

When I lived in London when I did 'Wicked' there, everyone told me the audiences might be much more reserved, but I found it was completely the opposite. They jumped to their feet sooner, even more enthusiastically than the New York audiences did, and they were just as warm and as enthusiastic and supportive as New York. — Idina Menzel

Europeans still read rather than watching TV or listening to their clergyman tell them how to vote. The European magazines are far superior to American magazines in content and readership, but TV is taking a bite out of circulation now even in Europe. — Peter Menzel

It is tough being patient when you are more than a half million dollars in debt. — Peter Menzel

We live in an idiotic capitalist self-indulgent society where the sex life of a pop star is more important than impending starvation, land mines and child soldiers in Africa, or more interesting than the world's biggest man-made natural disaster in oil fields of the Middle East. — Peter Menzel

The most successful people are so original. — Idina Menzel

For singers, I believe we can sing in a lot of keys. I know I have this big range, but the point is to find a key that emotionally connects people. — Idina Menzel

It's important to get a translator who will ask the questions in a sensitive and thoughtful way. Knowing the ethnicity issues, the tribal issues in some places ... who your translator is can mean a lot. — Peter Menzel

I just enjoy being onstage and relating to the audience. — Idina Menzel

Pre-planning is essential. Research, research, research. If you are going to do a portrait, know as much as you can about the person beforehand. The web makes this very easy. — Peter Menzel

Hot air balloons are terrific to shoot from, although they have become very expensive, as has most lodging and food in the Napa Valley. — Peter Menzel

My husband and I grew up with parents who supported our passion, and we're grateful to them for that. It really helps you find your identity when you're younger. It helps you become a really well-rounded person, the more you can show from different perspectives. The arts show us empathy, which is so important. — Idina Menzel

I used to take 40 minutes to warm up before going on stage. If you want to spend time with your child as well as having a career, you have to get up there even if your head's a mess. It's made me more relaxed, and I'm having some of my best shows. — Idina Menzel

Being a role model is about being true to myself. — Idina Menzel

I think that if you're doing a new musical, you want to have the opportunity to experiment and try things without the whole city of critics looking over your shoulder. — Idina Menzel

I find that, maybe because I'm also a singer, I hear music in characters all the time, even if they don't sing. I hear what affects me in my heart. — Idina Menzel

I've heard Braggadocio about excess baggage charges, multiple unused hotel rooms, and rental cars held unused for long periods of time, which makes me lose respect for certain photographers. Sometimes it's worth it to spend money on a good idea, but wasting money makes me ill. — Peter Menzel

Digital makes it so much easier. No bricks of film, no worrying about airport X-rays, etc. — Peter Menzel

One question haunts and hurts
Too much, too much to mention:
Was I really seeking good
Or just seeking attention?
Is that all good deeds are
When looked at with an ice-cold eye? — Idina Menzel

My favorite thing of all time is a New York City weekend when there's a blizzard. Everything gets really quiet, and everyone goes to the movies and the park. — Idina Menzel

The cool thing is that, unlike film, the theatre roles for women get better and better as you get older. — Idina Menzel

I'd been a wedding singer through college, but after a few years of doing my best renditions of jazz standards to clinking glasses and the sound of forks on salad, I thought, 'Oh God, if this is all I do, I'll never be able to live with myself.' — Idina Menzel