Mary Chapin Carpenter Quotes

Some people can sit down and write a song, but they can't go on stage like I can.

Many writers secretly long to be performers. You always get the 'if you weren't a writer' question. I would be a back-up singer, to stand in the back and go like 'do, do, do.'

If you're up there [on stage] thinking about what you're doing, you're just not there and it's not going to happen.So trying to learn how to overcome those - which is a normal thing to do. You're in front of a lot of people. People are going to get very self-conscious. So you have to learn to sort of overcome that tendency towards self-consciousness and just blow it wide open. And you jump in and join all those people that are out there enjoying what you're doing together.

I'm always nervous about it. You know, somehow, without even knowing it, I try and recreate the idea of what it feels like to go in front of an audience every night when I'm making a film. And that similar type of pressure and excitement before a scene, or preparing for a movie, so...

I get really nervous right before I go on stage. But once I'm performing, I always love it. It's like being in a different world.

I have been on stage on a few occasions where I felt I couldn't escape the interior of my - my interior thoughts. But Peter Wolf once said, what's the strangest thing you can do on stage? Think about what you're doing.

It feels like the more I'm out there in the public eye, the more criticism I get. You need to have confidence - that's what it takes to walk out there and sing a song in front of a huge group of people.

The reason I don't tour is that I don't know how to front a band. What would I do? I can't really play anything well enough to deal with that situation.

When I perform onstage, I'm actually kind of nearsighted, so I don't have any real, true understanding of what the audience is like.

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.

I made a few records here and there by default, but I wasn't ever comfortable in that role. I wasn't comfortable on stage. We'll see how it goes this time.

I've never suffered stage fright. That fascinates people.

I love having the opportunity to perform, and I hate not being given the opportunity to perform.

I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

If I wasn't performing, I wasn't alive. That's the truth. My parents had absolutely no interest in the business, but they knew it made me happy, so they said 'Go for it, girl!'

I loved to make people laugh in high school, and then I found I loved being on stage in front of people. I'm sure that's some kind of ego trip or a way to overcome shyness. I was very kind of shy and reserved, so there's a way to be on stage and be performing and balance your life out.

There's some anxiety the 30 minutes before the show starts. But once you step on stage and face the people, everything goes away, and you have fun and enjoy the audience.

I never got nervous performing my own material.

I love making movies, but there's nothing like being in front of an audience.

I secretly nurtured the idea of being in show business but was always terrified of it. I had every fear you could possibly imagine associated with performing.

There's such an adrenaline rush for me on stage and having all these people look at you. There's an adrenaline rush from not having things written down, too.

Performing live is easy in front of an audience.

I think that's what is so cool about performing. When there is a show to do, you get up there and do it.

It's one thing to practise in front of a mirror at home, but another to do it in front of 800 people or on live TV.