Improvisation Quotes

Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.

Paul Simon

Chance

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Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion — you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That’s how life is.

Bobby McFerrin

Mean, Keys, Expectations

"Sing Your Prayers: An Interview With Bobby McFerrin". Omega Institute Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 11, 2012.

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In improvisation, there are no mistakes.

Miles Davis

Music, Mistake

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In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

Charles Darwin

Teamwork, Creativity, Knowledge

Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.23, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what's going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along.

Stephen Colbert

Inspirational, Graduation, Education

"Top 10 Commencement Speeches: Best of All Time" by Meena Jang, www.hollywoodreporter.com. March 8, 2015.

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Improvisation is the art of being completely O.K. with not knowing what the f— you’re doing

Mick Napier

Art, Knowing, Not Knowing

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The thing about improvisation is that it's not about what you say. It's listening to what other people say. It's about what you hear.

Paul Merton

People, Beautiful Day, Listening

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In 1968 I ran into Steve Lacy on the street in Rome. I took out my pocket tape recorder and asked him to describe in fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation. He answered: "In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds." His answer lasted exactly fifteen seconds.

Frederic Rzewski

Music, Rome, Differences

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Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise.

George Gershwin

Music, Jazz Hands, Cool Jazz

"Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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But one of the things I learned from improvising is that all of life is an improvisation, whether you like it or not. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century came out of people dropping things.

Alan Arkin

Discovery, People, Life Is

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Improvisation is the courage to move from one note to the next.

Bobby McFerrin

Moving, Next, Notes

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Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

Cecil Taylor

Music, Jazz Improvisation, Ability

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Improvisation is intuition in action, a way to discover the muse and learn to respond to her call.

Stephen Nachmanovitch

Intuition, Way, Action

Stephen Nachmanovitch (1991). “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art”, p.41, Penguin

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You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!

Art Tatum

Music, Kids, Practice

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My game is based on improvisation. Often a forward does not have the time to think too much. You have a second, rarely more, to decide whether to dribble, shoot or pass to the right or left. It is instinct that gives the orders.

Ronaldinho

Motivational, Soccer, Thinking

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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Composing is improvisation slowed down.

Wayne Shorter

Music, Jazz, Composing

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I'm proud of my ability to understand what somebody else is trying to do and help them achieve it, because part of the aesthetic of improvisation is service. We don't lead, we only follow. You never say no. Serve the servant, follow the follower. And that's very valuable in your life, as well as very valuable in your work.

Stephen Colbert

Trying, Followers, Proud

Interview with Nathan Rabin, tv.avclub.com. January 25, 2006.

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Improvisation is not the expression of accident but rather of the accumulated yearnings, dreams and wisdom of our very soul.

Yehudi Menuhin

Dream, Expression, Soul

"Theme and Variations".

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And in Improvisation there is one hard and fast rule, and that rule is known as "Yes And." The term YES AND: to say yes, and not just yes, but to add information. In the adding of information you don't negate the other persons idea - but you build on it.

Maya Rudolph

Ideas, Add, Information

"Maya Rudolph's Commencement Speech is Fantastic - 'Create Your Own Destiny'". Maya Rudolph's commencement address to the students of Tulane University in New Orleans, Los Angeles, onmogul.com. May 16, 2015.

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Improvisation is really not so much remembering things. And this is what I do when I play. I forget things. When I go on the stage, I want my mind to be a blank, so that I can - things can come into me without my knowing where they came from.

Sonny Rollins

Play, Knowing, Mind

Source: www.pbs.org

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Composition is selective improvisation.

Igor Stravinsky

Composition, Selective

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Improvisation can be either a last resort or an established way of evoking creativity.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Creativity, Way, Lasts

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.4, Grove Press

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Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.

Sonny Rollins

Music, Spiritual, Jazz

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Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails, but that's what we face when we're dealing with improvisation.

Jan Garbarek

Faces, Sometimes, Failing

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Even if the script's well written there's something about the life of an improvisation that resonates better than a written word, sometimes.

John Travolta

Scripts, Sometimes, Wells

"Wild Hogs - John Travolta interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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