Performer Quotes & Sayings

I know that I am an excellent live performer. I know that I have spent my life paying attention to my art form, developing my art form, worrying about my show and what it is I'm bringing to people, making sure that I give them a fine trade. They get a two-hour show, sometimes a three-hour show, for a decent price. — Gallagher

I'm not a natural born performer. — Amy Winehouse

The first concert I attended was an Elvis concert when I was eleven. Even at that age he made me realize the tremendous effect a performer could have on an audience. — Cher

What you're hoping for about the concert is an overall collective experience that everyone has and that you share with them and when you hit the stage you have a "common" feeling. Even though you're the performer and they're the audience there's something uniting everybody in the room. — Joel Plaskett

you're a writer when we (I) know what you truly are: a performer, an exhibitionist. — Caroline Kepnes

At times as a performer they segregated us in some of theatres. — Cab Calloway

I went to a theater arts school, so I'm interested in many different projects, whether it be film, television or even live theater. I'm a performer. That's what I do. That's what I want to do. — Derek Hough

Any performer is one person privately and then he's another person when he steps on the stage. — Mick Jagger

It's difficult to be a mother and maintain a career as a performer - but then it's difficult in any industry. — Bonnie Langford

Throughout my whole life, as a performer, I've never played with a band. I've always played alone, so I was never required to stay in rhythm or anything. So it was a real different experience for me to start playing with a band. There were so many basic things for me to learn. — Steve Martin

The most puzzling thing about TV is the steady advance of the sponsor across the line that has always separated news from promotion, entertainment from merchandising. The advertiser has assumed the role of originator, and the performer has gradually been eased into the role of peddler. — E.B. White

I love Nelly. He's such a great performer. He's so hyper and so am I. — Fergie

I'm a Gemini, so there's two people in me. Straight up. There's the nerd who is totally zoned out in the studio, EQ-ing this kick drum, raising this snare one decibel, or swapping this high hat out for another. Then there's the other side who's a performer. I have to go out on stage and be electric, a fire cracker, just run around the stage and give a show. — G-Eazy

It is not a mystical thing, however, it is obvious and practical and I think that what the performer does is to try to get to that point with every choice you make from the phrasing in a tune to the choice of tunes. — Leo Kottke

I was the family alien. Both my parents are quite creative, but I was ... appalling ... always putting on little shows. I was rather a shy child, not a natural performer, but there was a performative edge to everything I did. — Laura Wade

I don't find it hard to direct myself. I can easily think of me as a horrible performer or a good performer. I work with actors who cannot stand watching or looking at themselves, which is not my case. I can have an eye and perspective on whether I'm terrible or good enough for me. — Xavier Dolan

There were times in my career ... when I felt like a trapeze artist doing dangerous somersaults without a net underneath. When you execute those somersaults flawlessly, the audience feels the same sense of triumph the performer does. — Beverly Sills

Probably more than anybody else, I loved Nat 'King' Cole as a performer - not only his singing but his piano playing. Whenever he had a new record come out, I'd get it and try to learn how he was playing. And he was one of the nicest people I'd ever met. — Bruce Forsyth

My dad is a Jack Nicholson lookalike and a frustrated performer, my mother's into reading and poetry. I suppose the thing I owe them most is my confidence. — Michael Sheen

I've always loved the rock & roll element to live shows, because whatever else I do, I'm basically a rock/pop performer, and that's what I like. — Marc Almond

Then come the lights shining on you from above. You are a performer. You forget all you learned, the process of technique, the fear, the pain, you even forget who you are you become one with the music, the lights, indeed one with the dance. — Shirley Maclaine

There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

George Burns was a Vaudeville performer I particularly loved. — Tom Waits

One of my favorite places in San-Francisco is Aunt Charlies drag show. You pay $3 and see shows that literally give you goose bumps and bring you to tears. As a performer, you know they're giving 100% and you can't help but cry. — Christopher Owens

Well, once you've resigned yourself to the fact that you are the more mature pop performer and you're past the age you ever thought you would do it, you might as well do it as long as you can. As long as I can still lift a microphone, then I'll do it, you know. — Jarvis Cocker

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

If you want to be a singer or a performer or absolutely anything in the world that you want to do, I think you should never give up, you should never let anyone put you down and tell you you can't do it, because if you believe in yourself you will go far — Perrie Edwards

No, I'm a theatrical, live performer or a movie performer. — Liza Minnelli

I'm not a director that's about precision and control and perfection, I'm about creating an atmosphere that's organic and interesting and then letting people loose, and for that there's no greater actor or performer than children. Animals are maybe a close runner-up. — David Gordon Green

Skills and special abilities will only grow if you practice more. You become a star-performer by doing. Let performance and production of desired results become a consistent habit associated with your personal brand. — Archibald Marwizi

Because I'm a performer I can justify and sometimes sell the things about me that offend and shock the conventional world. I need to live life in the fast lane. I need to do things to excess. I need to go over the edge. I have an obligation to experience the things most people can't experience. The taboos. The things you're not supposed to know or do. That's part of my job. That's why I do it. I would probably do it anyway. — Elizabeth Ashley

To others we are not ourselves but a performer in their lives cast for a part we do not even know that we are playing. — Elizabeth Bibesco

I became a performer because it was what I enjoyed doing. — Richard Pryor

When Peter Gabriel left, we obviously lost a very strong stage performer. Phil hasn't replaced him; Phil's done a different thing. — Mike Rutherford

Martha Graham, along with George Balanchine, is one of the two commanding figures in 20th-century American dance. For those much younger than I am, her genius as a performer will have to be taken on faith - and on the always-suspect evidence of film. What will last, if things go well, is her genius as a choreographer, as a woman of the theater. — Robert Gottlieb

I am a professional performer and I only appear on TV for entertainment or for philanthropic organizations, and I consider this a very serious matter that doesn't fit into either category. — Lionel Stander

I went to high school right outside Dallas, and (songwriter and performer) Michael Martin Murphey was a senior there when I was a sophomore or junior, really into folk and acoustic music. Larry Gross, who's the host of "Mountain Stage" on public radio, and B.W. Stevenson, also a musician, were there at the same time, too. Michael was a big inspiration
through him I discovered Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Jimmy Rogers. Then I ran into Jerry Jeff Walker there in Dallas back when he was just a folk singer. Those are my earliest influences. — Ray Wylie Hubbard

Performance for another in no way signals the inferiority of the performer to the one for whom the performance is intended. — Sandra Bartky

I worked with my parents on the stage in production numbers since I was 4, but I never really gave much thought to being a performer on my own until I was 12 or 13. — Helen Reddy

The stuff I do and say onstage I can do easily. As a performer, that comes easily. But being social offstage, it's not easy for me. — Margaret Cho

I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called Radio Gaga. That's why I love the name. Freddie was unique - one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music. He was not only a singer but also a fantastic performer, a man of the theatre and someone who constantly transformed himself. In short: a genius. — Lady Gaga

I've always called myself a writer/performer, not an actor because I basically write what I perform. — John Cleese

Even going to college, getting my degree in Radio TV and Film, as I was approaching the time when you have to decide on a major, I kept trying to figure out what would be the best major to enhance what I am doing as a performer. — Jeff Dunham

The basic success of the conga came from ... that basic principle of African music and dance: everybody participates. The conga eradicated the distinction between performer and audience, broke down the wall of the proscenium ... — Ned Sublette

I think I'm open to adventures and surprises. As a performer, I'm really just naturally talented. And those roles may not look as good on paper, but I know how to create them on screen. I like to have fun and interpret my roles in my own way. — Bai Ling

In the end, the market will decide which is the better performer: dirty coal-fired power or clean wind and solar. Market-based competition. That doesn't sound like communism to me. — Frances Beinecke

One's concentration as a performer must remain centered on the action of which one is a part. For it is in truth only one's own concentration on the imagined reality of the role that can force the audience's attention to that same place. — Rick Dees

Right now, my career is in three directions: as a performer, as an arranger, as an author - and I don't give any one of them true precedent, or true top marks, as opposed to the other two. — Mel Torme

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

I think people sometimes don't pay enough attention to what they do. I've done well, but the reason is pretty simple: I've worked my ass off. The toughest thing a performer can do is make it look as if it comes easy. — Justin Timberlake

It is human nature to want to believe in the wizardry of the magician - but also to turn against him and to scorn him the moment that he commits the slightest error that reveals his trickery. Those in the audience are embarrassed to have been so easily astonished, and they blame the performer for their gullibility. — Dean Koontz

I am a writer - that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist. — Brian McKnight

As a kid I was always a bit of a clown, a performer. — Simon Baker

As a performer, there was nobody better than Morrissey. — Mike Joyce

Miss Dietrich is not so much a performer as a one-woman environment. — Vincent Canby

I recently found myself going through a period of uncertainty about my future as a performer, my status as a personality, the believability of my Christian witness and the knowledge of God's will in my life. I felt a force bigger than myself saying, 'Lay back. Take it easy. Study hard. Read your bible. Think, write and keep your mouth shut for awhile.' — Johnny Cash

The greatest benefit of being a solo performer is that it is seriously frightening, but at the same time very empowering. It's just you and the audience. All the weight is on you to deliver the songs. — Zola Jesus

Christmas was really where I started coming into my own as a performer because I did all this stuff on my own, all this performing on my own, When other kids were outside playing, I was in my room conjuring characters and impressions and things like that. — Jim Carrey

I write things in my house, and hopefully there's a reader out there who enjoys it and has an experience with it, but that's very different than a performer on stage, where there's an immediate dance with the audience. It's incredibly powerful. — Stacey D'Erasmo

I don't really like to call myself a brand, and I don't like to think of myself as a brand. I'm a singer, a songwriter, a musician and a performer. And an actress, and all the other things that I do. When you add it all together, some might call it a brand, but that's not my focus. — Beyonce Knowles

I worked in Trenton, and then I got sidetracked into comedy and then onto 'SNL.' And then into being a live performer - what I do now; virtually that's what I am: I'm a live entertainer. — Joe Piscopo

Any musician with a slight level of self-awareness can be taught to write a 'good' song. A great song is completely original. It feels as if the performer is the only person who could bring it to life. — Greta Salpeter

To be a qawwal is more than being a performer, more than being an artist,One must be willing to release one's mind and soul from one's body to achieve ecstasy through music. Qawwali is enlightenment itself. — Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

I never wanted to be a performer, that was not one of my goals. I wanted to be a musician and that was that. — Barry Manilow

I'm pretty straightforward as a performer, but I do have a bit of a diva in me. — Corin Tucker

My size has helped make me an amazing performer too. The cliche of the Funny Fat Friend: I absolutely was that character - I am that character ... It's a complicated bag of tools I acquired, and I've put them all to work onstage. — Beth Ditto

Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer. — Clive James

Classical virtuosity is more than technique, line, proportion, and balance. It is as if the performer and spectator come together to hold in their hands a bird with a broken wing. The creature can be felt to stir, to struggle for freedom. Its life responds to human warmth; its wing might brush your check as it flies away. — Gelsey Kirkland

I don't consider myself a stand-up comedian. I consider myself a performer; a comic as opposed to stand-up comedian. Stand-up comedians stand there and do their bits; I break every rule in creation. If there's a rule that can be broken in stand-up, I'll do it. — J. B. Smoove

I always was a performer, from the time I was little. It was always a natural place for me to be. — Billy Crystal

When I got lucky with Dean, I ended up with 16 years with one of the truly great performers of all time. He was the greatest performer I'd ever been around, bar none. — Greg Garrison

As a performer, much of my life has been spent in the spotlight. I know how important appearance can be to teens, especially the impact it can have on the way you feel about yourself. — Christy Carlson Romano

Not 'I don't give a f-' to just be reckless and do whatever, but 'I don't give a f- what they say.' ... I know who I am and what I'm doing in my life and what I've accomplished and continue to accomplish as a performer, as a writer, as an artist, as a person, as a human being. I'm happy with the man I'm becoming. — Justin Bieber

Improvisation was the blood and bone of jazz, and in the classic, New Orleans jazz it was collective improvisation in which each performer, seemingly going his own melodic way, played in harmony, dissonance, or counterpoint with the improvisations of his colleagues. Quite unlike ragtime, which was written down in many cases by its composers and could be repeated note for note (if not expression for expression) by others, jazz was a performer's not a composer's art. — Russell Lynes

I think we've become a TV culture where we forget the live performer in front of us can see us. I think there is a self-centeredness that happens. There's nothing more important than what you are doing in that moment. So, unless it's an emergency, put your phone away. — Laura Benanti

Self-control is a big deal in human performance. Getting better depends upon it. You cannot get better if it's not you who has to get better. You are the performer, period. You are the only thing you can control. — Henry Cloud

As a musician or a performer, you're meant to know what you're about, but it's ridiculous that someone 14 would have any idea of what they're about. — Ben Lee

For our ancestors music was something that you sat down to listen to, or which you made for yourself. It was a ceremonial event, in which you participated, either as a passive listener or as an active performer. Either way you were giving and receiving life, sharing in something of great social significance.
With the advent of the gramophone, the radio and now the iPod, music is no longer something that you must make for yourself, nor is it something that you sit down to listen to. It follows you about wherever you go, and you switch it on as a background. It is not so much listened to as overheard. — Roger Scruton

When I see someone not performing, I am frank enough to tell the person that it's not working out. I request him or her to leave or change jobs within the group. But I see many of our senior colleagues, including my brothers, sons and nephews, empathetic towards non-performers. They don't want to face the issue. They tend to become comfortable with such people and they get protection. They tend to choose people who become personally loyal to them rather than to the company. I think it's important to be professional about such matters. Protecting a non-performer is not good for the business and also the person being protected. This is unprofessional too. The non-performer may be in the wrong job and thus not doing what he or she is best at doing. Empathy that results in protection would lead to a negative result for the employee as well. He or she might be better off in another job within the group or elsewhere. — Subhash Chandra

Try not be resentful or jealous of other people's success. Know that your path as a performer is going to be very different than others. Try your best not to compare. — Erica Schroeder

No, something far more mysterious has taken Felix. He has heard the unicorn." Like a performer, the cat gave a dramatic pause.
"Um," said Lionheart.
"You have no idea what I'm talking about, have you?"
"No, sorry."
"Mortals," growled the cat. — Anne Elisabeth Stengl

That's the most comfortable place for me. In the beginning, yes, I was nervous going on stage. I was not a natural performer. I really had to acquire that skill. — Jerry Seinfeld

I am a street performer as much as I am a stage performer. Yes, I have a television show, but every trick, every 'Mindfreak' you see, I can do live. — Criss Angel

Due to a combination of dispositional characteristics and personal performance histories, functional performers typically expect positive performance outcomes, and dysfunctional performers typically expect negative performance outcomes. Over time, these beliefs become strongly held and difficult to change. In addition, these belief sets can become self-fulfilling because they affect how the performer interprets challenge or threat in performance situations (Sbrocco & Barlow, 1996). For — Frank Gardner

I think he is an entertainer. I would prefer if he were a performer. — Carol Bellamy

In the Culture of Character, the ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable. What counted was not so much the impression one made in public as how one behaved in private. The word personality didn't exist in English until the eighteenth century, and the idea of "having a good personality" was not widespread until the twentieth. But when they embraced the Culture of Personality, Americans started to focus on how others perceived them. They became captivated by people who were bold and entertaining. "The social role demanded of all in the new Culture of Personality was that of a performer," Susman famously wrote. "Every American was to become a performing self. — Susan Cain

I always knew I wanted to be a performer. — Heather Dubrow

I've always been compelled by some force to be a performer. — Lady Starlight

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

Physical expression was my first language: Before I was an actor, I was a dancer, an acrobat, a mime and a street performer. — Denis Lavant

The worst thing you can do as a performer is to judge your character in any way, positively or negatively. — Romola Garai

I want to be remembered as a great performer. — Conrad Sewell

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

Your assets are your employees. Invest more on those performing well. Let the non performers go. — Manoj Arora

Fans are what make a performer and I've always taken them seriously. — Charley Pride

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

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

The one mentality I've always tried to have is that no matter what stage in your career that you are in as a musician or a performer or a songwriter or whatever, there's always more to learn. — Nick Jonas

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

When I was younger, I always wanted to be a musician, a performer and an entertainer - but I never thought about becoming a poster or anything like that. It's pretty cool. — Ross Lynch