Matt Bellamy Quotes

I've done a lot of stage in my life, but I never had to dominate a stage for three hours.

The craziest thing I've probably done during a show is the balcony dive - it was pretty scary. I was like, 'This could result in an injury of mine,' but somehow I survived.

Every night, you fight for that standing ovation at the end of the night. And if you do something wrong, the domino effect is chaotic. And you must not allow yourself to make mistakes whatsoever. So in that case, theater, it's fascinating because of the discipline that you need.

I think generally playing live is a crap idea. So much of stage work is the presentation of personality, and I've never been interested in that.

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.

Playing a stadium is a big adrenaline boost for me and I dig it. It keeps me on my toes and makes me revamp everything I'm doing and not get stagnant with how I approach every show, which is something I like.

More is asked of you on stage. It's no way to make a living. But it's like a bullfight. You find out who can do it and who can't.

I feel like I'm always performing in Vegas around Christmastime.

Performing live is easy in front of an audience.

We used to approach a small 400-person show like an arena show, as if I was a star and I was coming out on stage in front of screaming people and that I was to be larger than life.

I get a little teary on stage sometimes. It can be really emotional when it dawns on you that people are singing along and having fun.

When it's my show, I know that everybody is there to see me - but I like a challenge, and I like the fact that at festivals not everybody is there to see me, but I have the chance to convert people.

Hosting the Emmys is a challenge for me. I guess it's the equivalent of someone who needs to climb a mountain or jump out of a plane. It's that kind of thing, where this could go terribly wrong. And I love the feeling of when it goes right.

Being performers, that's what we do: We put on shows and want people to watch.

If you can handle a nightclub audience successfully, you can handle anything.

You get very comfortable doing the open mic circuit, turning up to the same places and playing to 20 people. In that situation, it won't matter if you aren't great on that night because no one will really remember who you are. Then suddenly you are doing rooms to 400 people and you have to up your game.

I feel like every time I go out, I want to do a good job. I want people to say that he's just as good at stand-up as he is in some of the movies I've seen him in, so I try to do the best every time I go out there.

I've been a live performer longer than I've been a television performer. For me, live is where it's at.

From then on, I realized this is what I want to do, what I'm supposed to do: Giving energy and receiving it back through applause. I love it. That's my world. I love it. I enjoy it. I live for it.

I don't think that just because you go on stage you are an exhibitionist.

Onstage, there's no hiding; you either can or can't act. There's no second take.

Once I get out onstage, it's the same sort of basic production that it is anywhere else. But I might be a little bit aware that there might be people I know out there, who wondered where I was.

There's no second chance on stage, and I was trained to make the most of my first chance.

I expect if you're a professional public speaker, you probably wouldn't want to go onstage and sing and play drums.

When you are on stage, you don't see faces. The lights are in your eyes and you see just this black void out in front of you. And yet you know there is life out there, and you have to get your message across.