Lester Holt Quotes

I'm really articulate when I do my thing - when I speak on the mic, when I do interviews. I'm a colorful personality.

Reporting makes you a better anchor and vice versa.

Ventriloquism kind of helped me find my voice. It's really helped me come out of my shell.

I can't tell stories to save my life. I like to have fun, and I go out and have a lot of fun. But I'm not really an entertainer that way. I'm much more shy.

In preschool, I would plan out my show-and-tell every week to be funny and exciting. Then in first grade I wrote a play, and my classmates and I performed it as a puppet show.

I started out doing improvised voices when I started working in a program where I read for kids in schools. I had some kids and they asked me if I would mind doing it. I was very happy to do it. That's where I got my training before I went to the public. I did that for several years. It was actually the best vocal training I could have had.

I'm not a good storyteller. I always think I'm going to get interrupted, or something's going to get edited. I think that comes from being in a large family, so you have to get your story in really quick or someone cuts you off.

I love acting because it's empowering. It empowers me.

I think acting has helped me come out of my shell because when I play a character, I can't be self-conscious.

Up until college age I was using the typical little-boy dummy that sits on the knee and makes woodpecker jokes. My first original character didn't happen until later, and that was Jose the Jalapeno on a Stick.

I was really shy when I was younger, so my mom got me into an acting class to see if I would open myself up more in front of an audience. Her plan was for me to just talk more.

Even when I lecture per se, I am a joke comedian, I can do the voices.

I think everyone should take an acting class. It's like therapy because you get to learn a lot about yourself if it's the right teacher. You're putting yourself up there in front of people, and it takes a lot of the intimidation of everyday away.

I believed early and still believe that everybody who can act can do it already, just they don't know how and don't want to talk about it.

I was very fortunate that a teacher saw that I read a lot and got bored very easily and had a lot of energy, so she said, 'You've got to go to this youth theater.' I joined Manchester Youth Theatre when I was really young, and I just loved putting on and being involved in plays and telling stories.

I was a very imaginative and theatrical child and wasn't afraid of being in front of a camera.

I like the performing. And interviews, even. And the stuff that's not sitting in a room by yourself with empty paper. But I never loved writing, to tell you the truth.

I dreamed of being an actress when I was a little kid because you don't know then that the writer writes everything the actor is saying. But as I got older, I got into college and became more aware that writing is another option, and I started getting into it, too.

Being an anchor is not just a matter of sitting in front of a camera and looking pretty.

The ability to absorb a book and make someone else's words and story your own was exactly was I was doing on stage.

Getting on stage is a bonus, that's my therapy, that's when I can tell stories and it all makes sense.

What I learned at journalism school and at ABC - those skills are the same no matter where you are in the world.

Storytelling helps us understand each other, translate the issues of our times, and the tools of theater and film can be powerful in helping young people to develop communication/collaboration skills, let alone improving their own confidence.

My life isn't necessarily more important than anyone else's: I'm just better in talking about it.

I used to do little sketches into my cassette tape recorder when I was a little boy. I would just turn it on and just start doing voices and characters. I just loved it.