Martin Landau Quotes

I think a lot of what you do in acting, and for the most part singing and dancing and everything, is trial and error. It's all about just seeing what works, and if it does, to use it, and if not, to throw it away.

Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing.

When we get together and rehearse, which is always living with each other, we always talk about what would make it better, what would mean more, what would say more. So we're always improving and growing.

Nothing is invented and perfected at the same time.

I try something new every night. It's an hour show; if it works I maybe try it a few more times and then move that off and try something new. It's a great workshop for me.

With every project I've ever done, I've always treated it like I'm still in school. Each time you try to go a little further, get a little deeper, feel a little more, sculpt it a little better.

In trying to make something new, half the undertaking lies in discovering whether it can be done. Once it has been established that it can, duplication is inevitable.

Few ideas work on the first try. Iteration is key to innovation.

I'm one of those actors who likes to do it wrong nine ways before I come to the tenth way, which is the way I think it should be.

Lots of comics try stuff out all year round, which is very sensible - I don't.

I don't think I've ever made something that I'm totally satisfied with. That feeling of doubt, or wanting to do more, is my engine to move forward and make the next iteration.

Give the composer time to experiment, time to try out ideas. Also, the time to fail. When the composer has very little time, the temptation is to reach for stock ideas - ideas they know will work and have worked in the past.

The fun for me musically is that you never quite know what works and why. So why pretend you do? Why not just put things together and discover, in the creative process, if and why they work? That approach has served me well.

Most good work is a combination of parts you love and parts you could do better. My constant mantra is, 'Next time, next time, next time.'

My initial ideas are just a starting place. As a record goes along, it becomes more about making discoveries and getting excited about new songs.

Half of art is accident, but there is no accident without free experiment.

I imagine that when I am creating a song or a project or an album or putting some clothing together or cooking a meal, whatever it is, I don't really have a recipe. The fun part is to throw that big piece of clay in the middle of the table as hard as I can, and whatever shape it takes, that's what shape it takes, and then I start to carve away.

None of us understand what we're doing, but we do beautiful things anyway.

I think half the point of painting a picture is that you don't know what will happen... that if painters did know what was going to happen they wouldn't bother to do it.

I am a fan of rehearsal. I like doing it [scene] over and over and over and over until it looks like you never did it before.

I write a melody and then change it and change it until I get it the way I like it.

That is a big danger, losing your inspiration. When I work in film and television I try to do each take a little differently. I never want to do the same thing twice, because then you're not being spontaneous, you're just recreating something.

I wouldn't say I'm a very original thinker, but if I have a good experience with something, I'll want to take it further or adapt it in some way.

I just throw it out and see what happens. If it sounds and feels right, then I continue.

I go on at least 2-3 auditions a week in the pursuit of more work. So I'm constantly working on material and constantly honing and trying to perfect a craft that is never perfectible - it's always new, and it's always different. It's always a work in progress.