Philip Baker Hall Quotes

Solo concerts are murder, I find; I don't like doing them.

I would have given up acting in a minute. I didn't like how it set me apart from other people.

It's very intense to be in front of a live audience. It's just an amazing experience. It's dangerous. Everything out there is heightened. The bad stuff is extra-worse. The silences are extra-silent. The good stuff is amazing. It's electric when you walk out there. For 90 minutes, you're on this other planet.

Not playing off of an audience is very challenging.

The biggest problem I have doing my acting is having to interact with other people. I think if it wasn't for my wife and my kids, I'd probably be a hermit.

On television, you have an intimate moment with the camera. In theater, you are making something live with people there. My brain doesn't understand that you don't get another take ever. I'm finally learning on TV that you can do something over if you make a mistake.

The stage is my comfort zone, and playing live is what I've always wanted to do. It's why I want to do two hundred dates a year. I wouldn't feel that way if I were nervous onstage.

I'm usually pretty good in front of a live audience. I usually like that.

You'd think I'd have been happiest in my life playing music in front of 50,000 people at Gillette Stadium. But let me tell you, it's an odd feeling to feel alone in the spotlight.

I don't get stage fright, I actually love the energy, I love the spontaneity, I love the adrenaline you get in front of a live audience, it actually really works for me.

You're standing onstage in a sold-out arena with people singing your music, and you feel like the loneliest person in the world. Because here's a party that, essentially, it's for you. And you still somehow feel like you don't belong there. Those people all have their lives and go back home.

I was really nervous, intimidated by the whole thing-all the people and all the buzzing, and all the sitting around waiting. I felt really small in this huge place.

I didn't really like the aloneness of doing stand-up. The comedians by nature weren't very - I mean, they were sociable, but they hung out in cliques, and it's very hard to get accepted; lots of competition.

I don't like being on television when I'm playing live. I don't even like being on Jools Holland or any of them programs.

The players never think they project enough. In a hall that seats 3,300 people, it's a very scary thing to play so quietly that you can barely hear yourself.

I still get thrilled by the energy that is a live performance, the fear and the panic and the electricity that happens on the night. I think jolting myself every once in a while with that fear is a good thing for me.

I've never not appeared in front of a live audience for any longer period than a month or two.

It's a little daunting to know you're going to take off your clothes and 16 million people are going to see it. It's not a normal day at the office.

I was so intimidated by the thought of improvising back in the '80s when I was in Chicago. I think the opportunity only even came up once that I can recall, and I turned down the offer. It was to go improvise in some club in the suburbs or something. Good God, I couldn't think of anything more frightening than to get up there without a plan.

Stage is much more intimidating than going before the cameras, because you can really screw up, and can't do a retake.

There's a pressure regardless of that to do a good show.

I didn't really like the aloneness of doing stand-up.

Actually, performing is a lot like golf. You are alone, so vulnerable.

Performing in front of a live audience can be pretty intimidating, so having a full head of hair was important to me.

I was jumping out of my skin. It was horrible. I was all over the place, because I'd never been in front of a live audience. That's a whole other element in the play, the audience.