Improvisation Quotes - Page 12

• The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence.

  Carlos Gavito

  Dance, Impossible Things, Silence

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• Improvisation sometimes seemed more like jazz than acting, like verbal jazz, with the actors playing a theme back and forth, and then introducing another theme, incorporating it, somehow trying to work their way all together to a meaning of some kind, or at least a conclusion.

  Alan Arkin

  Trying, Acting, Together

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• I never did improv professionally, but that was certainly in my training as an actor. I like it. Actually, when I did theater, I used to have a partner, and that was the way we used to write a lot of our sketches, through improvisation. So it's something I feel comfortable with.

  Steve Buscemi

  Writing, Training, Actors

  "Steve Buscemi Talks Balancing Comedy and Drama, and His Experience with Improv On the Set of THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE". Interview with Steve "Frosty" Weintraub, collider.com. February 27, 2013.

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• I may be prejudiced, but I believe that jazz music has the strongest healing potential, and it's not just because I play it and love it so much. I feel that it's the improvisation in jazz that makes it so strong as a healing tool, what each individual gives to a tune from their heart and their soul when they take a solo. It's all spontaneous, and it's all love, and from the heart.

  Horace Silver

  Strong, Believe, Healing

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• Well David "Fathead" Newman was my first experience with improvisation. When I saw him play for the first time I realized that there is an importance of spontaneous music being made on the spot. It was so soulful and singing through his horn. So that's how I was inspired early on.

  Roy Hargrove

  Play, Singing, Saws

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• To sing a song is like whispering to a child's ear. It is an art heavily relying on improvisation.

  Andrea Bocelli

  Song, Art, Children

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• You know, when cameras are rolling, improvisation doesn't feel natural. The pressure is too great. You're on a time schedule. You've got 60 crewmen.

  Albert Brooks

  Pressure, Cameras, Rolling

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• Most of my favourite moments in film have been when I've had an opportunity to say something from scratch, something original, whether I jotted down a few lines or it came out in improvisation.

  Nicolas Cage

  Opportunity, Scratches, Lines

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• I've always been into improvisation.

  Tommy Chong

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. September 29, 1999.

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• The shortest feedback loop I can think of is doing improvisation in front of an audience.

  Demetri Martin

  Thinking, Feedback, Audience

  Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. February 25, 2009.

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• If it's a modern-day story dealing with certain ethnic groups, I think I could open up certain scenes for improvisation, while staying within the structure of the script.

  Martin Scorsese

  Stay Strong, Thinking, Beautiful Day

  "Dialogue: Martin Scorsese". Interview with Todd Longwell, www.backstage.com. January 6, 2003.

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• I love improvisation. You can't blame it on the writers. You can't blame it on direction. You can't blame it on the camera guy... It's you. You're on. You've got to do it, and you either sink or swim with what you've got.

  Jonathan Winters

  Guy, Swim, Cameras

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• Classical stuff takes a lot of rehearsal time and preparation, but with stuff that involves improvisation, you can over-rehearse it and it gets stale. You don't want it to be too comfortable. In fact, a good sound check, a good rehearsal usually means a bad performance.

  John Zorn

  Mean, Preparation, Sound

  "Interview hits dissonant chord with John Zorn" by Lee Hildebrand, www.sfgate.com. August 26, 2010.

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• My solo music - I get up onstage, I improvise and it's my improvisation. When I get up onstage with Fred Frith and Mike Patton, then we're improvising together. Then it's not my music; it's our music.

  John Zorn

  Together, Get Up, Solo

  "Interview hits dissonant chord with John Zorn" by Lee Hildebrand, www.sfgate.com. August 26, 2010.

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• I’m going to break one of the rules of the trade here. I’m going to tell you some of the secrets of improvisation. Just remember—it’s always a good idea to follow the directions exactly the first time you try a recipe. But from then on, you’re on your own.

  James Beard

  Ideas, Secret, Trying

  James Beard (1974). “The best of Beard: great recipes from a great cook”

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• When we got to the part where we had to improvise an argument in a poetic language, I got cold feet. "I can't do this," I said. "I don't know what to say." "Say anything," he said. "You can't make a mistake when you improvise." "What if I mess it up? What if I screw up the rhythm?" "You can't," he said. "It's like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another." In this simple exchange, Sam taught me the secret of improvisation, one that I have accessed my whole life.

  Patti Smith

  Mistake, Simple, Feet

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• I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

  Sonny Rollins

  Music, Essence, Jazz Improvisation

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• Actor training should be broadly humanistic, involving the study not just of dramatic literature and theatre history, but of languages, literature, and history generally, and should be centered on acting in plays rather than just exercises, improvisations, monologues, or even scenes.

  Richard Hornby

  Exercise, Play, Training

  Richard Hornby (1992). “The End of Acting: A Radical View”, Applause Theatre & Cinema Books

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• Jazz is improvisation and syncopation, with resilience and flow, with earthy elegance, nuance and subtlety, with the integrity of individual expression within (usually) a group context, with true democracy in action.

  Greg Thomas

  Music, Integrity, Expression

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• Improvisation is the essence of good talk. Heaven defend us from the talker who doles out things prepared for us; but let heaven not less defend us from the beautiful spontaneous writer who puts his trust in the inspiration of the moment.

  Max Beerbohm

  Inspirational, Beautiful, Essence

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• If you go back to the roots of jazz, it was all about COLLECTIVE improvisation.

  Henry Threadgill

  Roots, Jazz, Collectives

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• I know all about improvisation and the free-form that mirrors the chaos of our time, but I do like to feel that the playwright has done some work before I got there.

  Jean Kerr

  Mirrors, Done, Chaos

  JEAN KERR (1970). “Penny Candy”

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• If you just want to be a writer, I don't care, for pitching, for writing dialogue, you should take an improvisation class. It's super important.

  Thomas Lennon

  Writing, Class, Important

  Source: www.gq.com

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• If anybody is a master at improvisation, it would be Ken Jeong. He is hilarious.

  Anneliese van der Pol

  Would Be, Masters, Ifs

  "EXCLUSIVE: Anneliese Van Der Pol Explains Why Vampires Suck!". Interview with B.Alan Orange, movieweb.com. September 4, 2010.

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• Bob Dylan's one of the greatest blues singers of the western world; ancient art, on-the-spot improvisation, mind quickness, endless variation, classical formulae, prophetic vision, mighty wind-horse.

  Allen Ginsberg

  Horse, Art, Wind

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