Michael Arden Quotes

I never really think of acting and directing as being separate; they are just different expressions of the same thing.

As filmmakers and as actors, you have to find truth.

I guess what all artists want is for their work to touch someone or for it to be thought provoking.

Honestly, I really, really love making movies. It's so much fun, and I love losing myself in the moment and just being there with other actors. When you're truly in the moment and you're feeding each other, it's such an exciting thing to be a part of.

What I've always done as an entertainer is try to come up with things that people will find interesting, or compelling, or humorous.

What I want to give in the theatre is beauty, that's what I want to give.

I always assumed people wanted to hear me tell stories, but then I had 'The Sunset Tree.' It turned out, my own stories were the ones that registered with people the hardest.

I think there's an aspect of my soul, of my personality, that's very suited to directing. I like being in the room with actors; I love creating a safe space and a chaotic space for the discovery to take place. I love creating a sense of community.

People don't want to see clothes, they want to see something that fuels the imagination.

I think I'm attracted to writers who tell us something about ourselves.

What I have to offer as a writer/director is the stuff with the feeling in it.

You can watch someone on-stage cry and cry - but in the audience you feel nothing. It's easy to become indulgent. For me, what's important is the story first.

I think every actor brings something personal to a role, right?

I've had a lot of very positive feedback about those stories, and seem to have struck upon something that most people feel. I can also tap dance, and don't know many other authors who can.

Acting and singing are actually very similar because they're both telling a story.

I love to entertain, I love to make people laugh, cry, and move them, perhaps moving them in their lives.

Every time I see a good play or watch a good movie, I have the same feeling I had as a child of wanting to be that person on stage or wanting to run through the forest with a big dress on.

There are places where writing is acting and acting is writing. I'm not so interested in the divisions. I'm interested in the way things cross over.

I'd say I'm definitely an actor first and foremost, but I love filmmaking.

You have to transmit to them what it's like being in the theater. And it has to come from somewhere inside you and not by being like what somebody did last year.

I've always really liked theater. It fascinated me. You can create a reality and get people involved in that reality. It takes place in real time.

I like to feel that all my best photographs had strong personal visions and that a photograph that doesn't have a personal vision or doesn't communicate emotion fails.

Composers, like authors, have a lot in common. Our main goal is to connect with the listener emotionally.

For a writer, they say write what you know. As a performer, you find it in yourself, in your heart. You relate to the character. You try to live it, try to have it be real for you.

Music runs through everything I do - I even think musically; even when I was acting, but, especially, when I am directing. Directing is very musical.