Theodore Bikel Quotes

Comedy is like music, and the way to make the best music is to have skilled musicians in your band.

I'm a craftsman. I'm an actor.

I have learned a lot from jazz. I compare good acting to jazz music. The more you study and prepare as an actor, the more equipped you are to live in the moment. Just like the gifted musicians in my dad's quartet, it takes a courageous actor to be free.

I love music, and I can play a little. But anyone can see the difference between someone who's talented and someone that's not.

Dance has always been my number one. I started when I was seven years old and I've had the opportunity to work with some really amazing artists.

As an actor, you want to push yourself.

The first condition for making music is not to make a noise.

I like to stretch my acting muscles.

It's funny, the hardest thing to do is to make something look like it's fast, loose and improvised, and get somebody to laugh.

You know, working as an actor, I'm always working within my own imagination.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

What I have to do as a musician is do everything that is not on the music.

I think acting is a gift.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

Acting was my first love before music.

Soul is a colourless thing. I don't think you have to be a black person to be automatically soulful. I respect Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake; they do what they do. For me, my philosophy has always been 'contribution before competition.'

The one thing I do know is that I'm the best Taylor Hawkins drummer there is, and that is all I can hope to be. And when it comes to music, musicianship and skill, there is no such thing as better or worse because so much is personal opinion, and I can see that now.

When you're acting and directing, you're standing there acting with another actor, and you're trying to do your performance, and at the same time you're watching their performance, and making sure the lights are in the right place, and if the person is wearing the right wardrobe. All these things are going on in your head.

Anything you can do to express yourself is a form of art. That's why I love my craft so much. I always wanted to play other artists. If I can't play an instrument, then I want to play a character that can. There is an artist behind everything, and I think that's beautiful.

I see only one requirement you have to have to be a director or any kind of artist: rhythm. Rhythm, for me, is everything. Without rhythm, there's no music. Without rhythm, there's no cinema. Without rhythm, there's no architecture.

Acting is just playing the violin in an orchestra. Directing is being the conductor.

I think I had a knack for music, but I think what I was more sort of talented at more than anything, because I don't think I'm a great singer, I think that I grew up imitating different voices that I heard.

Stand-up comedians say that anyone in the audience can be funny, but people paid to see us because we're just a little bit funnier. In the same way, I think anybody can play music - in fact, I think everyone has music in them, but some of us can do it a little better.

Acting and making music are quite complementary. Acting relies on someone else's writing and direction; writing music or lyrics doesn't. But they are both creative and personal in completely different ways.

I'm an actor. That's what I'm gifted at. It's what makes me breathe.