Steven Wright Quotes

It's thrilling to be onstage and to not know, literally, what the next moment is going to bring. To just submit to the not-knowing-ness of it.

There's real drama in performing live. You never know how it's going to be.

Music is very similar to comedy: It's all about texture, timing, context, vocabulary, performance. When someone's onstage doing a solo, essentially it's the same thing as what a comedian does. They're in the moment. They're listening.

When it's a live performance, anything can happen.

I think from doing so many live shows it gives you a real appreciation of being present. You don't know what's going to happen, you don't know what is around the corner.

If I see a live show and it doesn't have the aspect of danger where it could potentially go wrong, it's not that interesting to me.

It's hard to keep a play alive moment-to-moment, you know? But there's another part of it that I really love, which is that you never know.

The greatest thing about the call-in show is that you always felt like you were on a high wire without a net.

In this sport luck and tragedy are only a few hundredths of seconds apart from each other.

For my money, if I'm playing anything then it has to have some sharp angles on it. It's got to have some edges that you can cut yourself on, otherwise it's boring.

I'm riveted by extreme sports like big-wave surfing, 'megaramp' skateboarding and half-pipe snowboarding. I'm fascinated partly because the sports are so exhilaratingly acrobatic. But I'm also captivated by the fear that a terrible accident might happen at any moment. And accidents do happen.

I like the edge of danger.

I started in live television and I've done a lot of live TV and that's really the thing that I love best. I love flying by the seat of my pants.

There's nothing like live radio. I like the challenge. Throw it my way. Let me go!

The way you deal with a scare is the way you deal with a laugh. The timing has to be perfect. When you're dealing with fear or laughter - emotions that happen spontaneously - you hope it's working. But in the moment, you really have no idea.

I love the stage - the fact that you only have one take to get it right, the interaction with the audience, and how every show is different even though you're doing the same thing.

I love the rush of doing live TV - you never know what will happen next.

That's what makes live TV exciting - the unknown!

It's always in the back of your head that this is a crazy sport.

There is a joy in danger.

When I do an hour-and-a-half show, if I don't improvise 20 minutes worth of new material each night, I feel I've let myself down.

Usually, if I think something is really funny, I'm not gonna test it. I'll just test it when I'm onstage.

Whenever I realize I'm being a goofball, I write it down. When I release the joke onstage, I love watching the effect it has on the audience. No one wants to see someone talk who takes themselves too seriously.

No one set that I ever do is the same. I mean, if I go to a comedy club, and I perform three sets, all three sets are different because anything can happen in between sets.

The only TV I would be interested in exploring would be live television. There's no substitute for a team of artists performing at their peak live when failure is possible. It's a high-wire act. That excites me.