Top 22 Diane Paulus Quotes

At the core of what I’m doing is a belief in the audience, a belief that populism doesn’t mean dumbing down theater, but rather giving the audience a voice and a role in experiencing theater.

I’m always interested in working with people who are good team players – that are selfless that way in their interests and dedication to the project.

Politics, to a degree, is about legislation, administration. You can’t be there in the trenches.

I want an audience that will come sitting forward in their seats.

I’m always interested in looking – historically – at how theater can animate history and how all of that can make us engage with our lives in an enriching way.

Look at where I lived! Four blocks from Lincoln Center. I used to play in the fountain. And then I started taking dance lessons. I was in ‘The Nutcracker’ for the N.Y. City Ballet when I was 8 and dancing in ‘The Firebird’ for George Balanchine when I was 9. Believe me, that’s something you don’t ever forget.

My generation of director has no illusions that we are going to be fed and cared for by subsidized theater in America.

I grew up with a beautiful gold harp sitting in our living room. My older sister played it.

I had this epiphany that I like the interaction with people. I wanted to make things happen at a grassroots level.

I think in our culture there’s been a tendency for people to blame the audience. There is a tendency in our industry to say, ‘The audience has left the building. People don’t want culture anymore.’

I am always looking for what piece, what artists, what playwrights, what directors, what subject matter is going to catalyze an audience.

We’re a depraved civilization. All this technology, all the computer games and the iPhones… nobody will sit for art anymore. What a dismaying state of humanity.

I think actually what keeps the intensity manageable – it’s a little counterintuitive – is that it’s changing all the time. Every week is different for me.

For me, the reason why people go to a mountaintop or go to the edge of the ocean is to look at something larger than themselves. That feeling of awe, of going to a cathedral, it’s all about feeling lost in something bigger than oneself. To me, that’s the definition of spectacle.

I listen to music, I read scripts, and I know pretty intuitively if I can unlock it in a way. It’s actually very liberating when you understand that not everything is for you.

I’m sorry, but to ask an audience these days to invest three hours in a show requires your heroine be an understandable and fully rounded character.

The musical theater is a glorious and distinctly American innovation in the history of theater.

It’s freeing to not be caught up in your own personal baggage.

I think every theater in America wants a younger audience… and you can’t just hope to have a younger audience, you have to program things that audience is going to connect with.

I don’t want to be in an art bubble.

Opera is the ultimate art form. It has singing and music and drama and dance and emotion and story.

The mission of the A.R.T. is to expand the boundaries of theater through works of the canon and the new works of tomorrow.