Top 33 Juilliard Quotes

Coming out of Juilliard, I honestly was expecting and willing to be breaking my neck, hustling, and being unemployed for a decade, two decades. I was gritting my teeth, but I was so down to do that.

I almost never go to the theatre without seeing someone I’ve taught or known at Juilliard.

By the time I got into Juilliard, I was working at a Target distribution warehouse. It didn’t make anything, it just shipped things, and my job was just to stand there and look at the security codes on the back of trucks and see if they would lock, and check them in.

At Juilliard, I couldn’t afford to have fun. I went to school and stayed home.

I’m saving money like there’s no tomorrow because, when I was at Juilliard, I had so little. They gave me a full scholarship because I didn’t come from a wealthy family or anything.

I’ve actually seen a good amount of the shows at Lincoln Center Theater. I went to school right across the street at Juilliard, so some of the first stuff I got to see here in New York was at the Lincoln Center Theater. I’ve always been inspired by the work that they do.

I always think about stuff I learned, in any scene. Juilliard taught me a lot.

It was at Juilliard that I realized that being a singer encompasses so many things that I am interested in. Literature, languages, physics, history, art. You really get to explore so many things.

I really wanted to do plays since I was a little girl. I wanted to go to Juilliard and to learn, but then I really fell in love with doing film and television along the way.

I went to school at Juilliard, and most of our training there is the classics, and as much as I thrive in contemporary, weird, experimental work, I really am excited about finding a pioneer woman or something from a different era that I could really sink my teeth into.

I just wanted to go to New York and be on Broadway, but then I was accepted by Juilliard, where they trained me in classical voice. It was great in the end, but at the time, I thought, ‘What am I doing here? This is not my path.’ But it was absolutely my path and where I was meant to be.

I applied to a few conservatories. I was sure that I wouldn’t get in, and I didn’t plan to go to N.Y. But then I got into Juilliard.

I was on a couple of scholarships. I had a job in the school administrative office. I had a job as a hat-check boy in a restaurant. I had another job as an assistant to a casting director. It took a lot to get myself enough money to put myself through Juilliard.

I remember when I got into Juilliard – which was just crazy to me, that I would be studying at a school like that – the choice to cut all my hair off was really symbolic for me.

I trained at Juilliard so that I could do all kinds of genres, so that’s what I’m trained to do.

Juilliard definitely emphasizes the theater. They don’t train – at all really – for film acting. It’s mostly process-oriented, pretty much for the stage.

At Juilliard, suddenly I was reading these great plays that could articulate the ways I was feeling in the Marine Corps, and that felt very therapeutic, by putting words to feelings, in a big way.

For the first six or eight months at Juilliard I felt paralysed. I didn’t know what I was doing.

At a young age, I wanted to be a prima ballerina and had these grand ideas that I would go study at Juilliard. It’s something I laugh about now.

I did a masterclass at the Juilliard and asked the students, ‘Can you stand?’ ‘Sure.’ ‘Can you walk?’ ‘Sure.’ They couldn’t. They had never really thought about it.

Juilliard is wonderful in that they don’t pick just one way of working. They give you a palette. There is method acting. There is a lot of attention to Shakespeare and verse.

The first year at Juilliard is, I think, the best. And partly why I left – I only went one year. Partly why I felt okay leaving is that the most important elements, I believe, happen in the first year. What they do is they tear down all your conceptions of acting, and they take away all your tricks that you’ve learned.

I learned from master teachers at the University of Evansville, at Juilliard, at Shakespeare festivals all over the country, eventually landing at Shakespeare in the Park in N.Y.C. That show transferred, so I got to make my Broadway debut doing ‘The Tempest’ with Patrick Stewart.

When I wanted to become a serious actor, this girl told me, ‘You should go to Juilliard.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’

Juilliard gave me the ability to go and do classical, contemporary, comedy, drama, everything.

Juilliard. It was a brutal and beautiful experience.

Coming out of Juilliard, I had a big head, and a lot of people wouldn’t want to be an assistant. But I am so fortunate, and I’ve learned a ton.

Not even my excellent training at Juilliard prepared me for my first movie role, where I played a transsexual who falls in love with a military guy in ‘Soldier’s Girl.’

Do you want to be an actor, or do you want to be a celebrity? I made that decision when I went to Juilliard. I wanted to be an actor. So, if I get the opportunity to be an actor and do some cool, fun and interesting projects, I’m going to do that.

They didn’t really encourage my goofy, comedic side at Juilliard.

There were not many black students at Juilliard, unfortunately. So when you get there, you become very good friends, in particular, with the other black students.

Where did I study? I went to P.S. 6. I went to Collegiate, Middlesex, Tufts, Juilliard.

I never expected to go to Juilliard. When they came recruiting in Miami, I auditioned. I got a scholarship.