Improvisation Quotes - Page 11

• In comedy, my strengths are improvisation.

  Kevin Hart

  Comedy

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• I've been fortunate to work with good directors who understand improvisation and understand the way comedians work. Luke Basan let me do my thing like do what you feel and take the character to another level. Quentin Tarrantino was more of an acting coach. He can teach you beats and then hell say go with it but give this feeling. So I've been fortunate to work with good, seasoned directors.

  Chris Tucker

  Character, Giving, Feelings

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• Louis Armstrong is the master of the jazz solo. He became the beacon, the light in the tower, that helped the rest of us navigate the tricky waters of jazz improvisation.

  Ellis Marsalis, Jr.

  Light, Water, Towers

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• People have their own interests and they want to play a certain kind of music. People want to play in orchestras. They want to play on Broadway. Those that want to play traditional jazz and have no interests in the ideas of improvisation. So in spit of the fact that there are fifty violin players, you might only narrow it down to ten and within those ten, there might only be three who have the right kind of background and credentials to deal with what you need to deal with. Everybody's got their own special thing that they are after and a lot of times you don't have time to be training people.

  Henry Threadgill

  Player, Ideas, People

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• A lot of people inspire me. I'm a huge movie buff. From studying and watching movies, over and over again, directly influential are Terrence Malik and his naturalism, Robert Altman and his exploration of improvisation, and Judd Apatow, in terms of his comedic process.

  David Gordon Green

  People, Inspire, Study

  Source: collider.com

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• Jazz is the music of the body. The breath comes through brass. It is the body's breath, and the strings' wails and moans are echoes of the body's music. It is the body's vibrations which ripple from the fingers. And the mystery of the withheld theme, known to jazz musicians alone, is like the mystery of our secret life. We give to others only peripheral improvisations.

  Anais Nin

  Echoes, Giving, Secret

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• I've always been interested in shaping music in odd ways, with odd riffs and that's been probably something that I've continued on with my studies with improvisation as I'm working with people.

  Roscoe Mitchell

  People, Way, Study

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• I'm no longer beholden to the sacredness of the recorded song as some kind of ultimate standard by which every performance of the song is measured. I like to diversify, that there are multiple versions of every song. And the songs incorporate a lot of improvisation, and an element of chance, and I think that's exciting. There's no one true formulation of a song, they have various manifestations depending on the space we're in. I like that.

  Sufjan Stevens

  Song, Thinking, Space

  Source: thequietus.com

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• If the environment permits it, anyone can learn whatever he chooses to learn, and if the individual permits it, the environment will teach him everything it has to teach.

  Viola Spolin

  Environment, Individual, Permit

  Viola Spolin (1963). “Improvisation for the theater: a handbook of teaching and directing techniques”

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• It was almost noon when the plane touched down at the Triad airport on the outskirts of Greensboro. There was a hire car waiting for me; I waved my notepad at the dashboard to transmit my profile, then waited as the seating and controls rearranged themselves slightly, piezoelectric actuators humming. As I started to reverse out of the parking bay, the stereo began a soothing improvisation, flashing up a deadpan title: Music for Leaving Airports 11 June 2008.

  Greg Egan

  June, Airports, Car

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• The great thing about improvisation is that it allows us to establish an uncensored form of theater. Freedom of speech is absolutely inherent to artistic expression.

  Lucien Bourjeily

  Expression, Freedom Of Speech, Artistic

  FaceBook post by Lucien Bourjeily from Oct 20, 2009

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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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• What of miniature boats constructed of birch bark and fallen leaves, launched onto cold water clear as air? How many fleets were pushed out toward the middles of ponds or sent down autumn brooks, holding treasures of acorns, or black feathers, or a puzzled mantis? Let those grassy crafts be listed alongside the iron hulls that cleave the sea, for they are all improvisations built from the daydreams of men, and all will perish, whether from the ocean siege or October breeze.

  Paul Harding

  Ocean, Autumn, Men

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• I allow an area for improvisation because the chemical things actors bring to stories make it not work.

  Vincente Minnelli

  Stories, Actors, Chemicals

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

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• Jazz is a music that really allows a person to express his deepest self, his most personal self - Africa being the primary source of jazz. Naturally, improvisation and swing are a part of jazz, improvisation being the key.

  Harold Land

  Keys, Swings, Self

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• 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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• With the exceptional talent that is Guy Sigsworth as producer and collaborator, we have recorded a collection of original songs that sees me moving away from a generic line up and back into the world of a programmer. Born of reconstructed improvisation I like to think of it as Prog-Pop, but I also like to think of big dogs as small horses. So don’t hang on to that thought long. Unless, of course, you think it astute of me in which case I am right

  Alison Moyet

  Dog, Song, Horse

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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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• To create characters, one must build background. And one of the tools we use is improvisation.

  Harvey Keitel

  Beautiful, Character, Tools

  "Actors get to improvise until 'Blue in the Face'" by Sherry Dean, www.cnn.com. October 20, 1995.

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• Thorny compositions that sound as if female teen punkers the Shaggs received doctorates in the music of 12-tone composer Alban Berg, and then rewrote their Philosophy of the World.... Carefully notated structures and interplay morph effortlessly into free improvisation that is intelligent and expressive, but never self-indulgent. Also featuring intense lyrics sung with their clear and melodic voices, the two women make transcendent chamber music outside of any genre.

  Elliott Sharp

  Philosophy, Intelligent, Two

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• Acting is really scary, but it's also challenging, fun, hard work. There's always an element of improvisation with every actor, even when something is really scripted.

  Michael Pitt

  Fun, Hard Work, Scary

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• I like to think that we've got a plan, so let's stick to it. That said, once we've stuck to it, we're allowed as much improvisation as anyone cares to indulge themselves in.

  Guy Ritchie

  Thinking, Care, Sticks

  "Revolver - Guy Ritchie interview" by Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• Perfect retention. I dont think I could do that-Ive never disciplined myself to do it.I suppose a lot of it is a question of discipline. Which improvisation is not.

  George Shearing

  Thinking, Discipline, Perfect

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• And more than anything, I like the improvisation of jazz. That's the same thing with DJ-ing. There's so much improvisation you can do with cuttin' and scratchin' that's reminiscent of jazz music, because it's all about how you feel. You're capturing a vibe and just going with it.

  DJ Jazzy Jeff

  Jazz Improvisation, How You Feel, Music Is

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• There are editing procedures for talks just as there are editing procedures in jazz improvisation.

  David Antin

  Editing, Jazz Improvisation, Procedures

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