Simon McBurney Quotes

The fantastic thing about the theatre is that it can make something be seen that's invisible, and that's where my interest in theatre is- that you can be watching this thing happening with actors and costumes and light and set and language, and even plot, and something emerges from beyond that, and that's the image part that I'm looking for, that sort of added dimension.

The theater, which is in no thing, but makes use of everything - gestures, sounds, words, screams, light, darkness - rediscovers itself at precisely the point where the mind requires a language to express its manifestations.... To break through language in order to touch life is to create or recreate the theatre.

In another project I worked on just a few years ago, a staging of Peter and the Wolf, which I translated into Yiddish and sang on a stage in New York City. Thank God very few people knew I was doing it! But the kids in the audience loved it - even though it was all in Yiddish.

I couldn't do a record without knowing I'll translate it into something visual.

A puppet, for example, is just a piece of wood, a couple of rivets, but put them together, and if you know how to do it, and the audience's imagination joins in with this, then a miracle will come out of that machine. That is what we and the audience do in the theatre - we create miracles in that space.

When we work on a new theatre piece, we improvise a lot. But it's the opposite in opera, where everything is fixed.

I love theatre because of the audience. It feels risky. But I love film because it travels to the whole world. To an audience I don't see.

I always wanted to act. I am very passionate about the art. So when I got the opportunity, I was more than happy.

I was interested in theatre, and the only experience that I had in high school was as an actor. But when I got in Conservatoire, my teachers would give me a lot of flack because I wasn't rehearsing my lines; I'd be doing stage management. I was interested in sound. I was interested in architecture. I was interested in every aspect of theatre.

I love working with film, whether it's the technical side, the acting side, or the musical side.

I love performing, and connecting with an audience never gets old for me.

I come from L.A. where there's a sense of show. But that's not a bad word in my mind. We say art 'show,' don't we? 'Show' implies entertainment.

Stage is all real; it's just as honest except it's bigger. I love stage, I love TV and film, so I think I'll just keep exploring and try to keep a really full picture.

In theatre or in ballet, the ballerina always passes on what they know. It's a hands-on craft. You can't really learn the soul and the pathos of it if you just see a video. It has to be taught by someone who is in the know.

I am not indulgent. I think constructing a scene elaborately - with art, costume, and visual drama - is not indulgence. Other people should do it, too.

Writing is the place where I can do it all and get away with it. You can't do that in the theatre.

Acting is my profession; I enact all roles with sincerity.

Opera is a very stimulating place to work, and I believe it offers the most intense theatrical experience possible.

DJing is like a great tasteful art form.

My father was an entertainer. This is, of course, one of the most marked and enduring manifestations.

The work of acting, in and of itself, is something that is infinitely enjoyable.

As an actor, I am open to anything interesting that comes my way.

It's always a challenge to come up with a musical environment.

I want to delve into the world of performing.

I have sung in all languages, and so every people know me - Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu.