Colin Firth Quotes

A long time ago I started talking into a balloon so I could feel myself talking, to practice judging volume, and compare it to other musicians.

I started singing in a choir when I was 4 years old.

I went through voice coaching. I was absolutely terrified. I thought my knees were going to buckle, and the first couple of takes I sounded like a pubescent boy. I didn't realise I was going to have to do it live.

I took some voice lessons here and there as a teenager but nothing too serious. I started taking it more seriously when I was in Miss Saigon. I needed to improve my technique in order to survive doing that show as many time a week as I was doing it. It's not an easy show to sing, so I needed all the help I could get.

The only thing I miss on stage is the falsetto.

I was a swimsuit model, and I got bored. Acting was challenging. It was very hard and intimidating. We choose to do things in life sometimes that scare the crap outta us. Performing in front of people was my challenge.

I really do think everybody can sing.

I was too shy to do any vocal lessons or go to choirs; I just didn't want to be seen doing it. It's something that I kept to myself. I started easing into it, and I started doing talent shows, and YouTube really helped with that, too.

I would be happy at a piano bar, singing. I just want to home in on being the best singer I can be.

I have a voice coach, but only in so much as to make my voice stronger so I can sing for five nights a week, two hours.

Well, a lot of people don't know this about me, but I'm actually shy around people I don't know. I would just say with my first concert, my first tour, I didn't really talk onstage. I was like, 'Thank you, I love you guys,' or whatever. But now I've just kind of learned to work a crowd.

When I was about forty-three years of age, I had a private secretary with a beautiful baritone voice. I told him I would give anything in the world if I could only carry a tune. He laughed and said, 'Anybody who has a voice and perseverance can sing.'

When I started out, I was absolutely awful, I had no voice, I didn't have a lot of stage presence and most of the interpretive intensity that I brought to the experience was actually terror.

Over the years, I was lucky; right from the beginning, I studied with a lady who had a lot of... she was a classical singer, and of course, they're a little bit more into, you know, preserving the voice, making sure your instrument is ready to perform.

Your voice is important - it gives away everything about you. The mouth is a muscle you have to work like you'd work at the gym.

I find Shakespeare terrifying. When Simon Russell Beale does a speech, I understand every word of it, but if I did the same speech, people would be going, 'Huh? What?'

I attended speech and drama classes with a nun to help me gain confidence in speaking without my face turning red each time.

There were pockets of this career - whatever you want to call it - where I said, 'I've tapped out. I don't want to do this. I'm gonna go be a stage hand. I don't want to do this. I don't want to talk to people. I'm afraid of people. I'm going to walk away from everything that this was and is.'

I couldn't even sing when I started.

When I began to direct, I discovered that I was much more comfortable than I was acting.

I had a voice - I had an instrument - I loved singing and I had an inspired singing teacher, Miss Sleigh. I went to her every Saturday, and I now possess the upright Steinway piano beside which I used to stand in fear and trembling if I hadn't done my breathing exercises.

I can't hold a note. I tried a singing lesson, but my vocal coach kept giving me the stink eye.

I suspect a singing teacher would have a fit with my diction. They'd probably think I was doing a very bad job.

I always sang after every dinner or when we had people over or when we had a show in school. I just loved to be on stage and sing in front of people.

When I started learning the violin, my choir teacher thought I could sing. But when I first got on stage, I froze!