Improvising Quotes

• And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

  Sylvia Plath

  Life, Sad, Writing

  Sylvia Plath (2013). “The Journals of Sylvia Plath”, p.85, Anchor

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• The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

  Sylvia Plath

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  Sylvia Plath (2007). “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”, p.545, Anchor

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• Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise.

  George Gershwin

  Music, Jazz Hands, Cool Jazz

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

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• In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

  Charles Darwin

  Teamwork, Creativity, Knowledge

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.23, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• I love being onstage. I love the relationship with the audience. I love the letting go, the sense of discovery, the improvising.

  Stephen Colbert

  Letting Go, Love Is, Discovery

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• I look at improvising as a prolonged game of chess. There's an opening gambit with your pawn in a complex game I have with one character, and lots of side games with other characters, and another game with myself - and in each game you make all these tiny, tiny moves that get you to the endgame.

  Steve Carell

  Moving, Character, Games

  "First Banana". Interview with Tad Friend, www.newyorker.com. July 5, 2010.

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• You're gonna need a bigger boat.

  Peter Benchley

  Inspirational, Movie, Radio News

  "Fictional character: Chief Martin Brody". "Jaws", www.imdb.com. June 20, 1975.

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• I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti

  Thomas Harris

  Movie, Nice, Great Year

  "The Silence of the Lambs". www.imdb.com. 1991.

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• I think when people talk about improvising it turns into this silly thing like, "Oh there's like a hula hoop there and I'm like 'Oh what's going on here? Is this a really big ring?'"

  Aziz Ansari

  Silly, Thinking, People

  "Aziz Ansari and Dilshad Vadsaria On Set Interview 30 Minutes or Less". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. May 10, 2011.

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• Yeah, improvising only really works 100% when you're with somebody.

  Bill Hader

  Yeah

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• The challenge is, well, there's a huge challenge, which is when you're improvising, you're meant to sort of clear your mind completely, just be open and funny, and paying, you know, paying attention.

  Brian Henson

  Challenges, Mind, Attention

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Improvisation is about finding the best joke or the silliest way to get something across. Improvising conflict is always fun because you can just go for it.

  Ed Helms

  Fun, Way, Conflict

  "Ed Helms Talks THE HANGOVER 3, JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME, and THE OFFICE". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. February 7, 2012.

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• As much as I think John Coltrane belongs on the list, I think without Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, both of whom defined improvising on the tenor sax, there would not have been the evolution of the craft by John Coltrane.

  Herbie Mann

  Thinking, Crafts, Lists

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• If they think they are doing something new, they ought to do what I do every day - spend at least two hours every day listening to Johann Sebastian Bach and, man, it's all there. If they want to improvise around a theme,which is the essence of jazz, they should learn from the master. He never wastes a note, and he knows where every note is going and when to bring it back. Some of these cats go way out and forget where they began or what they started to do. Bach will clear it up for them.

  Coleman Hawkins

  Music, Learning, Cat

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• I think jazz is a beautiful, democratic music. It encourages musicians with very strong, and many times, very different points of view to work together as a team while, at the same time, giving them the space to express their individuality. It's a very important art form and can be used as a model for different cultures to work together.

  Marcus Miller

  Music, Beautiful, Teamwork

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I think it’s very important to live in the present. One of the great things that improvising teaches you is the magic of the moment that you’re in … because when you improvise you’re in right now. You’re not in yesterday or tomorrow—you’re right in the moment. Being in that moment really gives you a perspective of life that you never get at any other time as far as learning about your ego… You have to see your unimportance before you can see your importance and your significance to the world.

  Charlie Haden

  Thinking, Yesterday, Giving

  "'Live In The Present': Charlie Haden Remembered". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. July 18, 2014.

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• No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.

  Christopher Walken

  Wonderful, Knows

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• Shamanic healing is a journey. It involves stepping out of our habitual roles, our conventional scripts, and improvising a dancing path.

  Gabrielle Roth

  Wise, Healing, Journey

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• If the same phrase in the same place created the right effect, I was perfectly prepared to use it every time. I wasn't worried that I wasn't improvising.

  Alexis Korner

  Phrases, Use, Worried

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• I don't even think you should tell the audience you're improvising. It's like an apology in case it's bad : 'we're just making it up' If the improv isn't better than the rehearsed stuff, then you should just rehearse it.

  Keith Johnstone

  Apology, Thinking, Stuff

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• A person improvising is sometimes very fortunate that just at that second things coincide.

  Leo Ornstein

  Coincidence, Sometimes, Persons

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• If you're too hung up on improvising 'correctly', you will almost always fail.

  Craig Cackowski

  Failing, Hung, Ifs

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• There's more truth about a camp than a house. Planning laws need not worry the improvising builder because temporary structures are more beautiful anyway, and you don't need permission for them. There's more truth about a camp because that is the position we are in. The house represents what we ourselves would like to be on earth: permanent, rooted, here for eternity. But a camp represents the true reality of things: we're just passing through.

  Roger Deakin

  Beautiful, Reality, Law

  "Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees".

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• I enjoy songwriting. It's slow-motion improvising.

  Julian Casablancas

  Slow Motion, Enjoy, Songwriting

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• My younger brother and I have been writing together, mainly for fun, for years, but we've been improvising together since we were kids. Literally.

  Ty Burrell

  Brother, Fun, Writing

  Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. November 18, 2009.

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