Lily Tomlin Quotes

I enjoy making films, but my heart is in the stage. Every night you have to be on. There's no second take.

My wife says that stage acting is like being on a tightrope with no net, and being in the movies, there is a net - because you stop and go over it again. It's very technical and mechanical. On stage you're on your own.

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.

What draws me to the theatre, and what appealed to me about Too Much Light, is that you have no idea what's going to happen. That's the most exciting part of theatre, it's never the same. If it were, it would be like watching a movie.

Going into a shoot not fully knowing what I want to do - that excitement, that thing that happens, is just so powerful and makes such great pictures.

When somebody is making a movie about your life, that's different. A show is a live performance. Things are going to go wrong. You are going to get away with things. A movie is indelible. A movie is through a microscope.

I have so much respect for people in the theater. You can't do 10 or 15 takes. It's all live. It's like life in motion.

No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.

You have to be on your game with a live audience because anything can change.

I think from doing so many live shows it gives you a real appreciation of being present. You don't know what's going to happen, you don't know what is around the corner.

Live TV is unlike any other animal. I love the adrenaline rush. I love the unexpected.

I couldn't worry about whether I'm gonna make it onstage or not. You can't. You just gotta do it. And if you do, you do, and if you don't, you don't, and then something else happens. That's the point of the live performance.

In film you have the opportunity of retakes or of giving your best profile. In theatre, it's right here, right now.

Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown.

When it's a live performance, anything can happen.

Improv is so freeing because there are no bounds; there's no safety net. You just say something and get an instant response.

There's a certain amount of joy in playing a character in the moment and not knowing what's going to roll out as it goes on. It's a bit like life, in a way.

I am not a five-year-plan type. I tend to put one foot in front of the other and to allow things to unfold.

I tend to go with the flow and that flow can end up in great places or not so great places.

In WWE, they're real big on letting you sink or swim, and they let you go out there, and they're going to give you the stick and a live mic in front of a packed house and millions watching at home, and if you're not prepared for that moment, you're going to go down in flames.

I'm trying all kinds of crazy stuff at house shows just for my own amusement and to see what the people are gonna do.

It's good to be prepared, but spontaneity is very important - just to let yourself go and let it be whatever it is.

The musicians in the band, and myself as a performer, love the risks of the unpredictable and the feeling of jumping off cliffs musically.

No, I never planned my life.

I'm a guy that, when there's something rolling out there, the predetermined rotations might go right in the garbage can.