I used to stick my head out the window when I was a kid and sing at the top of my lungs and think no one could hear me.
Walt Disney, of all people, did a good job of describing his own netony. "People who have worked with me say I am 'innocence in action,'" he wrote. "They say I have the innocence and unselfconsciousness of a child. Maybe I have. I still look at the world with uncontaminated wonder."
When I play, I'm so in the moment that I can't really remember what happened afterwards. It's a rare experience for a thinking person like me.
We do not think of life - we live it. We do not think of ourselves too much. We do not think of others too much... We just behave in a natural way.
A really useful quality to have as an actor is a lack of self-awareness. I try and get into the character's thinking, and some of them just aren't really that bothered about how they come across or aware of how they come across.
You do your best work when you're not conscious of yourself.
Naturalness is the easiest thing in the world to acquire, if you will forget yourself-forget about the impression you are trying to make.
I always like when you start to use something with a little less reverence. You start to use it a little carelessly, and with a little less thought, because then, I think, you're using it very naturally.
For me, the whole idea of performance is not being self-aware, and then sort of just experiencing.
Unless you are in the willingness and ease and ecstasy of some kind of moment, you may end up the editor of your thoughts and of your expressions. I find I'm that way on stage.
What makes a person sexy is when he's not trying to be sexy.
As a busker, one thing that does not work is self-consciousness. A busker needs to be working. A busker needs to shed all ego and get down to work. Play your songs, play them well, earn your money, and don't get in people's way.
There is something to be said about a guy who is attractive and doesn't know it. I hate men who are overconfident.
When you play, never mind who listens to you.
Most of the time, a kid doesn't think about what he's doing or why. This is the privilege of childhood.
A great thing about kids is they're just themselves and can't help it a lot of the times.
A community to be truly community, must have a quality of unselfconsciousness about it.
From taking photographs of George and Charlotte, I have been struck by the wonderful lack of self-consciousness that you see in photographs of children, without the self-awareness that adults generally feel.
I love the way little kids dress themselves! They're completely carefree about how others perceive them.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
When we can play with the unself-conscious concentration of a child, this is: art: prayer: love.
One of the interesting things about watching a kid perform is that they are too innocent to understand how talented they are… they have no inhibitions. If you ask them to sing, they will sing based on whatever training and practice they have.
When I act, I don't even know there's a camera there, don't care.
You have to be sharp when the camera's rolling. I want to be totally unselfconscious, like a child playing. I do as much prep as possible so I can lose myself for those seconds.
Lois and Alexander are by far the most beautiful creatures in the class; their beauty is like the beauty of plants, seemingly untroubled by vanity, anxiety or effort.
