T Bone Burnett Quotes

In a strange way, I'm way more comfortable onstage than anywhere else.

I love being onstage and I love to perform. To be honest with you, I'm more comfortable performing than I am in an everyday situation, which I can't quite explain.

I love to dance. But I don't like being up in front of tons of people. I didn't have that in me to do it, the desire to be performing in front of a lot of people. If there's a lot of people on a set, I get nervous. So music just wasn't something I ever seriously considered.

Nobody was listening when I learned how to play music. But there's something about being on stage, talking to the audience, looking at them and smiling, that's always been difficult for me. I'm a lot more comfortable now, but there are still moments of awkwardness.

It took me a long time to be alright with smiling onstage.

Going out on a stage publicly and not knowing how people are going to react to you - once I experienced that, it made me feel much more comfortable about going into a scene.

And when I perform on my own tour, I have to talk myself into going out on that stage every single night.

Strangely enough I'm better on a stage. I love that I feel like I blossom in front of a whole bunch of people.

I don't think that just because you go on stage you are an exhibitionist.

People think I look odd onstage. But the way I deal with being incredibly nervous is by concentrating really hard.

So much of performing is a mind game.

I like getting up in front of an audience. It's fun when you go to a baseball game and the crowd is cheering you. I can't deny it. And it's very funny, too. Sometimes you're shy; you go somewhere and everyone's looking at you, so you feel a little self-conscious.

Once I get out onstage, it's the same sort of basic production that it is anywhere else. But I might be a little bit aware that there might be people I know out there, who wondered where I was.

Onstage I have a natural chutzpa that audiences like. I'm out there.

I don't feel nervous or fearful when I'm on stage.

I was terrified of being on stage, and I had to work very hard at a craft to get past that.

Performing live in front of an audience is such a matter of will - all of those things you can do just fine in your basement, suddenly you have to do them in front of hundreds or thousands of people, and it becomes a different matter entirely.

Some people love being onstage and really open up, and I'm sort of the opposite of that. I don't crave the spotlight. I'm still not comfortable even talking onstage.

I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them.

At times in my life the only place I have been happy is when I am on stage.

I can sing in front of people. I can go on a TV show, live, and not feel like I'm going to throw up.

I wasn't really the most charming person, socially - it took me a long time to develop my people skills - but the one place I was always comfortable was onstage, acting or singing.

I'm hideously shy as myself, but on stage I can run around naked and bite the heads off fish.

When I was doing 'Britain's Got Talent,' I really enjoyed it, but I found it very difficult to be in the audience. I like to be on stage; I feel safer on stage because I'm in control.

I'm certainly not your typical front-man material. Some people love being on stage and really open up, and I'm sort of the opposite of that. I don't crave the spotlight. I'm still not comfortable even talking on stage.