Quotes & Sayings About Performing Live

We prefer when you walk around instead of through us. We like to be left in peace while we're eating and performing our courtship rituals. We ask only for the same rights as you: we just want to live our lives, make a place for ourselves, room to shit and room sleep, room to raise our children. Don't poison us just because we make a mess. You make a mess, too. There's enough of everything to go round if we all stick to our fair share.
Leave us be and there'll be no trouble. Be kind to us and we'll return the favour when the time for favours comes. Until then, peace be with you. — Stephen Kelman

Writers and musicians are very similar in that the chances of making a life in either field are so infinitesimal. And once you're in, the chances of staying viable are difficult. But there is something incredibly different about performing in front of a live audience, as opposed to sitting at your desk typing. — Stacey D'Erasmo

For me I have learned to enjoy everything, especially performing live, so much more. I used to get horrible stage fright when I was younger and today and just love to sing for anyone who still turns up at my shows! — Olivia Newton-John

I still feel I belong to the theatre. There is nothing more challenging and exciting for an actor than performing before a live audience. The stage is the real testing ground for an actor. — Anupam Kher

Performing live is the greatest high in the world. That's why I do what I do. — Toni Braxton

But I also live to perform and I've been performing my whole life, whether it's been in sports or you know in band or with my singing. — Ruben Studdard

I'm terrified of performing live. — Rashida Jones

Broadway is amazing because you're performing for such an intimate group of people. You're living in the moment and whatever happens happens, and you go on. You can't say cut and redo it, you have to be on the whole time. — Ariana Grande

Bear one another's burdens, the Bible says. It is a lesson about pain that we all can agree on. Some of us will not see pain as a gift; some will always accuse God of being unfair for allowing it. But, the fact is, pain and suffering are here among us, and we need to respond in some way. The response Jesus gave was to bear the burdens of those he touched. To live in the world as his body, his emotional incarnation, we must follow his example. The image of the body accurately portrays how God is working in the world. Sometimes he does enter in, occasionally by performing miracles, and often by giving supernatural strength to those in need. But mainly he relies on us, his agents, to do his work in the world.We are asked to live out the life of Christ in the world, not just to refer back to it or describe it.We announce his message, work for justice, pray for mercy . . . and suffer with the sufferers. — Philip Yancey

Yes, yes, theater in general is just going to always be my first love, performing for a live audience. — Megan Hilty

Writing humor in my column isn't as dangerous as performing it. If I fail in front of a live audience, the humiliation is as great as anything a human being can suffer. — Art Buchwald

I really love live performing! — Clay Aiken

I hate performing on live television. It's so scary, because, if you screw up, you don't really get any retakes. So when I do television shows now, having been on 'Idol' really helps me mentally to just kind of take it all in. So I learned a lot from it. — Phillip Phillips

I went into performing for the community. Being backstage with your company of fellows is the best part of working in live theater. That energy, that combined focus, the synergy - it's addictive. — Jason Alexander

I am happiest when I am idle. I could live for months without performing any kind of labor, and at the expiration of that time I should feel fresh and vigorous enough to go right on in the same way for numerous more months. — Artemus Ward

This is hard to say to people without offending them, but it's a universal truth even for the most high-performing people on the planet, so here it is: your self-image could be a lot better, and you ought to be a lot more congruent in how you engage the world. How we think of ourselves (our self-image) and how we behave in accordance with that image in the real world is the stuff of congruence. It's one of the most profoundly powerful drives we have as humans - to live in consistent alignment with who we think we are, how we want others to perceive us, and who we want to become. When we don't behave as the person we believe ourselves to be, we feel "off," "out of sorts," and, often, frustrated or angry. If we think we're lions, for example, but we act as mice, we secretly loath our- selves. From THE CHARGE — Brendon Burchard

It's all about going out there, performing live, making music. But, obviously, being a guy who has thousands of screaming female fans doesn't exactly make it less fun — Zac Hanson

I combined theatre and films with live TV, such as 'The Royal Variety Show,' performing sketches opposite Bob Hope and Maurice Chevalier. — Shirley Eaton

June 28, 1983 Mianus River Bridge Greenwich, Connecticut George Tesla was drunk. This wasn't new for him, but the reason was. He was going to be a father. Fifty years old, and he'd knocked up a thirty-year-old carnie. Someone careful enough to live through a trapeze act ought to be careful enough to not get pregnant. But she hadn't been. Tatiana flat-out refused to talk about abortion or adoption or any sensible solution to the problem. She was perfectly willing to talk about leaving him to raise the baby alone, but nothing else. Her mind was set. He leaned against the cold side of the bridge and took a long sip of Jack Daniel's from his silver hip flask. He'd bought the flask when he was first made professor of mathematics at New York University. Another thing that would have to change, since Tatiana had told him she had no intention of giving up performing to move to New York — Rebecca Cantrell

There's one thing you can't download and that's a live performance. And I know how to put on a show, and enjoy performing, and I'll always have that. — Madonna Ciccone

Performing is a profound experience, at least for me. It's not as if I sit down and play 'Fire and Rain' by myself, just to hear it again. But to offer it up ... the energy that it somehow summons live takes me right back, and I do get a reconnection to the emotions. — James Taylor

Obviously, fans are the beginning and end for any artist. The minute your fans embrace you and accept you, you begin this ride of being in music and having a career doing something you love. You get to go be a kid and live out your dreams by performing music for fans who come out to your shows. — Luke Bryan

I love live music and I love to see people's faces when I'm performing. — Leighton Meester

I mean, there's definitely a difference between film and live performances or live television. But at the same time, it's just performing. No matter what, it's performing. — Kenny Wormald

With performing live, you obviously don't get the luxury of another take, but for me, it is all the same. — Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer

The idea of performing some of Jack Skellington's songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas live for the very first time is immensely exciting. — Danny Elfman

I have no experience performing that music live in front of an audience. So that remains to be seen. I'm very excited to see what that's going to be like. — Tom Wopat

Performing in front of a live audience can be pretty intimidating, so having a full head of hair was important to me. — Joey Fatone

The performing musician was now expected to write and create for two very different spaces: the live venue, and the device that could play a recording or receive a transmission. Socially and acoustically, these spaces were worlds apart. But the compositions were expected to be the same! — David Byrne

It's tricky, performing the show live. Because when you're in a big auditorium, in front of 700 people, the natural tendency is to want to talk louder. You want to project. — Ira Glass

I do love live performing, but I'm not a stand-up naturally, and I don't like the lifestyle of working just in the evenings at clubs and stuff - not a natural gig-er. — Amy Hoggart

If I had to give up performing, it wouldn't bother me too much. But I couldn't live without my writing. I put all my feelings, my very soul, into my writing. I tell the world in my songs things I wouldn't even tell my husband. — Dolly Parton

Performing live on stage is such a community, whether it's my musicians or a cast of a show that I'm in. And then when you're in the studio or on set, it's a much more solitary experience. Both can serve me at different times in my life. And when I go back and forth from one to the other, it helps me appreciate all of them much better. — Idina Menzel

Musicians make up for the copies of their songs that get pirated by performing live. I don't think there will be as many people showing up to hear me read as to hear Beyonce sing. We need to make sure piracy is dealt with effectively. — Scott Turow

I do actually like performing to a live audience. I like the response. I do a lot of Doctor Who conventions now, and the reason that I do them is that there is a live audience I can get to directly. — Sylvester McCoy

Performing live is like harvesting your crops and sharing your food with people. — Jason Mraz

He was here! And he was performing live and in-person girl porn - household tasks! — Gena Showalter

The best feeling in the world is performing in front of a live audience who like what you're doing. I can understand why people become dictators just because of the thrill they get making the speeches. — Steve Coogan

I don't go to shows because I just want to listen to the music performed live. I want to get to know the person who's performing it. Or I want to, like, take away a sense that I had an experience that nobody else is going to have again, or a unique experience for that moment. — Sia Furler

Words are words. People add meaning to words.
Information is information. With words people add value to information.
Words breathe life into information. Words move mountains of information.
Words are action. Momentum for living evolves from pursuit of deeper, wider and higher significance, utility and value of words.
Words we sow, nourish and harvest feed hungry minds and hearts. Gathered words strengthen, ignite and release us.
Words identify, signify and proclaim our individuality. Words pronounce a purposeful life's choices.
With wisdom, courage and patience we must choose high-performing words for long-term relationships. Chosen words become soul mates. — John R. Dallas Jr.

I like performing because it's direct contact with live people. I write a good deal of the time but that's introspective creation rather than interaction. — Oliver

Literature is the best way to overcome death. My father, as I said, is an actor. He's the happiest man on earth when he's performing, but when the show is over, he's sad and troubled. I wish he could live in the eternal present, because in the theater everything remains in memories and photographs. Literature, on the other hand, allows you to live in the present and to remain in the pantheon of the future.
Literature is a way to say, I was here, this is what I thought, this is what I perceived. This is my signature, this is my name. — Ilan Stavans

I think everything about it. Just the experience, but mainly performing live for people. I think if it wasn't for playing in front of audiences, I don't think that anyone would want to play music. That's where you get all your gratification. It's just something else to be up on stage, playing music that you wrote and having people enjoy it - and have it mean something to them also. — Chris Hesse

Rock 'n' roll and playing live is very addictive. But you have to really be careful, because you don't want to do it all the time. It's like when you are young and you think if you are not having sex you're wasting your time. But as you get older you realise everything has its place. It's the same thing with performing ... Performing is a great thing to do but you don't want to have to be doing it every night. — Mick Jagger

You can choose not to be a performing musician. You can choose to just be a recording artist. But then you run into the problem of trying to earn a living and balancing the time that you spend working on your creative efforts to just getting the bills paid. You can go off the grid and live in a cabin and make whatever art you want and also provide all the sustenance you need and not interact with anybody else. — Mirah

I really wanted to approach performing live differently than most people who just play guitar and sing. — James Vincent McMorrow

I'm very proud of my records, but my most natural creative tendencies have been in live performing. There's a beautiful element to recording and making records, but I've always felt a little shy with it. — Langhorne Slim

I love performing on stage the most. It's getting that instant reaction from a live audience. There are no boundaries, you can take your character as far as you want to, you can be the craziest person ever. — Jennifer Ellison

I really just love reading. It's my favorite thing, performing my poems live. Reading by reading, I just kind of follow my nose. — Eileen Myles

The nice thing about live performance is that I've never, ever been let down. Partly I'm lucky that my audience self-selects itself. Generally they know what they're in for, and generally we all just like each other and get along. But I always find one or two or a dozen really interesting people in the audience who make the show different. And that's one of the things I really like about performing. — John Hodgman

Music is still the one thing that ties people together.
People can come together from all different religions,
walks of life, colours, creeds and enjoy the same song.
That's still the most incredible thing to me about performing live. — Dave Gahan

I think in 2016 I'm going to focus on performing a lot more and doing as many shows as I can. There's plans to tour more, and that's where my heart is - doing the live shows. — Tori Kelly

There's real drama in performing live. You never know how it's going to be. — Kevin Costner

Once I'm performing the show, I think that hour show has a certain intimacy with our audience. And that intimacy is through the lens and the live audience is a witness to that, whereas the audience at home is actually the object of my efforts. — Stephen Colbert

Performing comedy, you develop a rhythm of ideas and laughs. I live for it. — Louis C.K.

I always call performing live "giving the people the medicine," because when you're engaged in it, you can feel the sort of soul magic being exchanged between the performer and the audience. — Nick Offerman

You see, only defeat forces things to change.

When losing, we feel reborn and we find the guts to live again by performing the same mistakes under new forms.

On the contrary, victory humiliates human sentiment and hopelessly sends people to celebrate along with wine and prostitutes. — Manos Hadjidakis

I never expected to get the Tom Jones treatment and it amazes me that I do. Strangely it's women who throw their underwear at me when I'm performing live. My male fans tend to be quite shy. My female fans are wild. I never know what to do with all the lingerie that lands at my feet. Maybe I should open a shop. — Ellie Goulding

I was doing gigs to stay alive. I worked two or three jobs at a time, there were times when I stayed up for 36 hours straight. I slept in shopping mall parking lots. A stand-up gig paid $35; then I could eat for another few days until the next gig. Literally, I was performing to live. — Dat Phan

My roots are on the live performing stage, so while I enjoy making films and the other things that I do, when I get on stage, I feel at home; I'm comfortable. — Gregory Hines

As for performing live, I just never imagined how it would work out; for good reason, because it doesn't just work out - not the way you think it will. It's a chance that you take. — Ariel Pink

There's a gratification that comes from performing in front of a live audience, and you can't replicate that with anything else. In the studio, the creation part of this business is fun. But, when you see the fans letting you know that they enjoy what you're doing, that's why I keep doing what I do. — Trace Adkins

I always love performing live, and that's what I was doing that started getting me acting parts, so I still find time do it. — Mary Lynn Rajskub

With a live performance, you feel nervous because there's a sense it could do well or badly based on how well you are performing, whereas the only variable with a film premiere is technical, which invariably you have very little control over, whether the sound is good, whether the acoustics of the room are good. — Richard Ayoade

The doctor's words made me understand what happened to me was a dark, evil, and shameful secret, and by association I too was dark, evil, and shameful. While it may not have been their intention, this was the message my clouded mind received. To escape the confines of the hospital, I once again disassociated myself from my emotions and numbed myself to the pain ravaging my body and mind. I acted as if nothing was wrong and went back to performing the necessary motions to get me from one day to the next. I existed but I did not live. — Alyssa Reyans

Why are women so fearful? The answer to that question lies at the root of The Cinderella Complex. (...) Many women achieve a certain amount of success in their careers and professions and still remain inwardly insecure. In fact (...), it's remarkable how many women these days retain a hidden core of self doubt while performing on the outside as if they were towers of confidence. (...)
Lack of confidence seems to follow us from childhood (...) No matter how fiercely we try to live like adults - flexible, powerful and free - that girl-child hangs on (...). The effects of such insecurity are widespread, and they result in a disturbing social phenomenon: women in general tend to function well below the level of their native abilities. For reasons that are both cultural and psychological - a system that doesn't really expect a great deal from us, in combination with our own personal fears of standing up and facing the world - women are keeping themselves down. — Colette Dowling

Performing live is not my favourite. I am more of a recording person; I prefer to be private. I didn't mind doing videos, even if they came very close with the camera. I can take that, but walking on stage in concert and singing live, that is a bit difficult. — Agnetha Faltskog

I have never stopped performing live.I've been blessed with the talent to sing and play the piano so I can fit into a lot of different configurations and venues. I play public and private performances and it has served me well. And I've been fortunate to work in Europe and Asia as well as The US. So for those who have not attended my shows, it doesn't mean I'm not performing. — Oleta Adams

I feel like you have to constantly keep proving yourself, and you have to constantly keep getting out there and showing them you're more than just that one song on the radio that's just playing. And that's what I had to do the first time around; I had to keep going out there and keep performing live. — Bruno Mars

I've been acting my whole life. I have this huge imagination! I'm a dancer and my mom's a dance teacher, and I was always performing and entertaining people. I'd go to see live theatre or a movie, and I'd become the main character for a few days afterwards. I loved being somebody new for a temporary amount of time. — Natasha Calis

Performing in a live theater is absolutely unbeatable. It is something I have done my entire life and have a gift, it seems, for sharing thoughts live. — Val Kilmer

I really enjoy theater. Performing live onstage is helping me to grow as an actress. — Kim Fields

I love performing live: it's my very favorite thing to do. — Lil' Romeo

Performing live actually thrills me. Just get me a stage, get me a mic, and I'm going to be happy. — Rita Wilson

I like radio and live performing stuff. I don't like the television stuff as much. — Adam Carolla

The libertarian sees the State as a giant gang of organized criminals, who live off the theft called "taxation" and use the proceeds to kill, enslave, and generally push people around. Therefore, any property in the hands of the State is in the hands of thieves, and should be liberated as quickly as possible. Any person or group who liberates such property, who confiscates or appropriates it from the State, is performing a virtuous act and a signal service to the cause of liberty. — Murray Rothbard

Working in the studio is a more personal experience whereas on stage in front of a billion people, its more exciting performing live. — Mary J. Blige

I like performing live more than anything. I get a little bit afraid in the studio. — Valerie June

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

I've spent a lot of time in tiny venues in the way that I got my record deal and got my name out there just performing live. I was literally performing my songs in all kinds of different ways with different guitarists, and I didn't have an album up online or anything. It's been a lot of work; it definitely hasn't been a sudden explosion into fame. — Florence Welch

To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing arts (such as acting and dance) entertain. Literature, however, retreats from life by turning in into slumber. The other arts make no such retreat - some because they use visible and hence vital formulas, others because they live from human life itself.
This isn't the case with literature. Literature stimulates life. A novel is a story of what never was, a play is a novel without narration. A poem is the expression of ideas or feelings a language no one uses, because no one talks in verse. — Fernando Pessoa

The only TV I would be interested in exploring would be live television. There's no substitute for a team of artists performing at their peak live when failure is possible. It's a high-wire act. That excites me. — Francis Ford Coppola

Playing live is about going for it .. it's about bringing it ... you should see a bunch of people trying out stuff, actually performing, instead of learning the record and recreating it note for note. I can't play the show the same way every night .. I really need to be in a creative environment, every night or I'll go nuts ... my manager accuses me of singing just long enough to get me to my next guitar solo - which is true ... — Brad Paisley

Honestly, live is my favorite way of performing. Every show is a completely different energy. — Sharon Van Etten

There is no buzz like performing for a live audience. — Jack Wild

I'd love to do Broadway or the West End. I'm sure doing eight shows a week is gruelling, but I did a lot of stage shows in Sydney and I love performing live. — Rebel Wilson

It's not quite the same as other kinds of performing, but I love animation. It is just a different kind of experience. The difference is that making a live action movie you are using your whole body. — John Leguizamo

I live in Alexandria, Virginia. Near the Supreme Court chambers is a toll bridge across the Potomac. When in a rush, I pay the dollar toll and get home early. However, I usually drive outside the downtown section of the city and cross the Potomac on a free bridge. This bridge was placed outside the downtown Washington, DC area to serve a useful social service, getting drivers to drive the extra mile and help alleviate congestion during the rush hour. If I went over the toll bridge and through the barrier without paying the toll, I would be committing tax evasion ... If, however, I drive the extra mile and drive outside the city of Washington to the free bridge, I am using a legitimate, logical and suitable method of tax avoidance, and am performing a useful social service by doing so. For my tax evasion, I should be punished. For my tax avoidance, I should be commended. The tragedy of life today is that so few people know that the free bridge even exists. — Louis D. Brandeis

Performing on stage is my first love - it's why I wanted to be an actor in the first place - and 'Arcadia' is the highlight of my career so far. I love the intimacy of a live theatre audience - you can really squeeze every last drop out of each scene. — Tom Riley

I'm from the Bronx, so I am looking forward to performing before my homies. I'll keep it live in the house. — Big Bank Hank

Grease is one of the movies that made me want to be an entertainer, and I have literally been waiting my whole life to play Sandy. My siblings and I watched it and played it out over and over when we were kids. This is my dream role and performing it live on television will be one of the most thrilling opportunities I've had in my career so far. — Julianne Hough

Of course I love when people are quiet, but I also love when people are comfortable. I love when people emote. The flip side of having a totally silent audience is that they're less likely to react to you in the space, and I think that's one of the great things about performing live: you get energy from the audience, and you give energy back to them. There's interaction. — Missy Mazzoli

I am cool with people. I am not the one at the top of the water tower with the rifle at all. I am cool when they are cool. I am not a people person. I live alone and don't visit much with people. I do answer all the mail and meet anyone after the show though. I have no problem with this. These people took the time out to check me out, there's no way I am blowing that off or in any way disrespecting that. The Black Flag years were turbulent and it took a lot of work to be cool with people after that. I have never been one to go to clubs or events unless I am performing or on business. It's just not me. — Henry Rollins

Once you step on that stage, to me, that's where I feel most comfortable - performing live. So that's something would do each and every day of my life if I could. — Drew Lachey

Nothing beats performing live. For me, there's nothing better. — Kate Brown

Unless the clients want, I don't like to have dancers for my shows. I prefer a rock show look and like performing with a live band. — Shaan

Traveling around is what I Like to Do. Me And my boy Arab we live on the road. Doing shows is what I love to do. I put my heart and soul on the track and I Love the response I get. Performing wit UNK? Mane daz a dream come true. He's one of my favorite artist and Inspirations. So when they said Soulja Boy you got a show wit UNK man. Im like Walk It Out UNK? LETS GO! — Soulja Boy

Performing live in front of an audience is such a matter of will - all of those things you can do just fine in your basement, suddenly you have to do them in front of hundreds or thousands of people, and it becomes a different matter entirely. — Neil Peart

Immediate gratification of a live audience makes me come alive. I miss performing in theater. I'll make my return to the stage eventually. — Brendan Dooling

I just want to live on the road. I can't understand artists that don't want to perform and, like, get on stage and do their songs for all their fans every night. If I'm not performing every night, I get totally depressed. I know that sounds really weird, but I hate sitting at home and not having a 1 A.M. performance now. It kills me. — Kat Graham