I have 800 books of just Samuel Beckett’s work, tons of his correspondence, personal letters that he wrote. I have copies of plays he used when he directed, so all of his handwritten notes are in the corners of the page.
I was always kind of a loudmouth and a class clown, and that kind of led to doing all the school plays and trying out all kinds of different stuff.
The best way that a central bank can support growth on a durable basis is to ensure inflation is low, stable – there is financial stability – and that is the role that the central bank plays.
Anybody who plays the stock market not as an insider is like a man buying cows in the moonlight.
I’m not Bill Evans. I’m not Keith Jarrett. I’m basically a singer who plays along with his voice.
The most moving scene for me in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is the Pemberley music room scene: Elizabeth has just saved Darcy’s sister from embarrassment and confusion, and as the music plays on, Darcy’s look of gratitude becomes a look of love, which we see reciprocated in Elizabeth’s eyes.
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
I’ve seen plays that are, objectively, total messes that move me in ways that their tidier brethren do not. That’s the romantic mystery of great theater. Translating this ineffability into printable prose is a challenge that can never be fully met.
We felt that although they were patchy, there was a tremendous political energy in the Henry plays.
Sinatra, here’s a guy who plays a tough guy in all his movies, but was allowed to be vulnerable when he stepped up to the microphone.
Francis Ford Coppola did this early on. You tape a movie, like a radio show, and you have the narrator read all the stage directions. And then you go back like a few days later and then you listen to the movie. And it sort of plays in your mind like a film, like a first rough cut of a movie.
Plays are so much more special if they’ve never ever had a production, but I think you can really work on a play and make it better with each production.
I feel like I’ve been around performance my whole life. My mom and uncle had done plays.
My mother adores singing and plays piano. My uncle was a phenomenal pianist. My brother John is a double bassist. I used to play the piano, badly, and cello. My brother Peter played violin.
I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.
A lot of people like to run in plays because it’s a nice, steady job.
My best chance is that, in a happy moment, I hit upon St Francis as the subject for a series of plays. Others might have written them better: but, as I have written them, the advantage will probably remain mine.
But, I don’t think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can’t create his own Interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that’s written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom.
My plays have been strange from the beginning, and they never got unstrange.
I’ve always wanted to make music like people write plays, so I was inspired by writers as much as musicians.
I had a stammer through adolescence. Any fun I’d had performing in school plays disappeared and only came back at 18, when the stammer started to go. Then I thought: ‘Well, perhaps I can show off now.’
Shortly afterwards, I did a third one to repair the robotic arm of the station. This arm plays a very important role in the ongoing expansion of the station as well as in the deployment of solar panels.
Even the most understated ceremony involves a certain respect for ritual and pageantry. No one plays more of a significant role than the bride’s attendants.
Most people miss the great part mental outlook plays in this game.
When I did plays in high school and college, I never remember memorizing my lines, but once I had blocking, I had all my lines memorized. Once I had movement associated with words, it was fine. Before I had blocking, it was just text on a page. Once it became embodied, it was much easier.
And for the first time in a long time, I’m playing along somebody that has that same energy and fire and plays pretty much the same way I do. So, that was just nice to say.
If one plays good music, people don’t listen and if one plays bad music people don’t talk.
Going to the theater is such a joyous experience. My dad would take my sister and me to plays when we were very young, like six or seven years old.
I grew up in Georgia, and I started acting in plays when I was like eight years old, and I always memorized everyone’s parts, not just my own, and I always memorized everyone’s blocking. Whenever anyone wasn’t there, I would always jump in. I was very hands-on.
I used to do school plays. I never really took any acting classes. I’m just a natural ham, I guess.
I have done a lot of street theatre and plays and interacted with the public through radio and television.
Peer pressure plays a huge role in people’s desire to get married.
I think actors go along a continuum from Simon Callow down to kind of Ross Kemp, and I like to think of myself as the Ross Kemp of comedy. He’s very good in ‘East Enders’ because he plays a version of himself. I think I can play a version of myself – that’s about all I can do.
Plays are getting smaller and smaller, not because playwrights minds are shrinking but because of the economics.
I think how Chicago plays a role in my life – it had such a role in my youth and the decisions that I made as a kid and formulated who I am as an artist early on.
I want to exercise all my muscles. I want to do plays. I want to do everything.
I think people need to understand that with plays and with cinema, when you hear about it, call and get a ticket then or go and see it then. It’s especially with the play, which I can do because it’s a limited run.
Everyone who plays the flute should learn singing.
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.
My mom always plays Madonna in the car, so I was kind of familiar with what she was into in the ’80s.
Every actor has to love and loathe the character he plays.
I don’t jump as high and I’m not as fast as Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. I don’t have many highlight plays, but I can play this game.
I fell in love with acting, just going to a lot of plays. My parents went to a lot of plays, and I went to a lot of schools that would get plays for kids.
My university degree is in art and, yes, I do a lot of drawing for all my books. I have a big drafting table set up in a spare bedroom and I cover it with maps and house plans and sketches that I use in the books. Also, I truly love architecture, so that plays a big part in all my books.
I’m beginning to get pigeonholed as the girl who plays the crazies and weirdoes – and that’s not the entirety of who I am. Hopefully, the whole point of being in this profession is that you change into anyone you want to be.
In Australia, I wrote lots of little plays and put them on, and then I worked on a few different TV shows, like the Australian equivalent of ‘SNL.’ I would write and perform all of my characters.
The idea behind reinforcement learning is you don’t necessarily know the actions you might take, so you explore the sequence of actions you should take by taking one that you think is a good idea and then observing how the world reacts. Like in a board game where you can react to how your opponent plays.
Having to travel so much plays havoc with your personal life.
The crowd sometimes plays a tremendous role to give you wings and carry you to victory.
Football is a team sport, and each person plays a role – this is what counts.
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.
Somebody who likes to do my plays is a good director for them.
I think fashion is repulsive. The whole idea that someone else can make clothing that is supposed to be in style and make other people look good is ridiculous. It sickens me to think that there is an industry that plays to the low self-esteem of the general public. I would like the fashion industry to collapse.
I think I’ve done 200 plays and 125 movies, so I’ve been very lucky to have made a living at acting.
I enjoyed living in Chicago and doing plays for little or no money. I never actually thought that I would leave Chicago, originally. I wasn’t one of those people that had a plan to pack up the van and drive out to Hollywood. I didn’t want to.
I want my fights to be seen as plays that have a beginning, a middle and an end.
In designing the scenery and costumes for any of Shakespeare’s plays, the first thing the artist has to settle is the best date for the drama. This should be determined by the general spirit of the play more than by any actual historical references which may occur in it.
I’ll do shoes for the lady who lunches, but it would be, like, a really nasty lunch, talking about men. But where I draw the line, what I absolutely won’t do, is the lady who plays bridge in the afternoon!
