Judd Hirsch Quotes

I just want to make art that connects with people and moves them on an emotional level. Any time I can put out music and place a story behind it and have people watch it and go, 'Wow, I was affected by that,' to me, feels like I've done my job.

When you walk past a painting in a museum, if it doesn't make you feel something, then it's probably a failure.

Sometimes we do derive some entertainment when we 'appreciate' something, and sometime we feel something when we're moved. So a lot of game makers want challenge themselves with 'can I move someone?' or 'can I get them to respect me as an artist?'

I believe in things that move people, if the audience isn't deeply caught up and moved to either laughter or tears then I don't think it is theater.

On stage, it is a tremendous thing to be able to make people laugh. But one of the things that I have always loved is when I am in shows where you can turn the audience upside down and make them cry or move them. That is when things are the most rewarding.

If art doesn't move people, then art has failed.

To me, art's highest purpose is to entertain, to enlighten, to inspire, to evoke emotion and to change an audience in some way, big or small.

You can get swept away by a musical, but real tears are rare.

The reason I'm an actor and am trying to make my way in drama is to move people, to affect people, to gain a response - so these people who come up to you in the street are your audience.

I hadn't performed by myself in a while. It feels very natural to me, and I assume people come for the very same reasons as they do when I'm with the band: to be moved, for something to happen to them.

I consider those actors who amaze me are somehow less attractive to me than those actors who move me.

My approach is so simple; every song I sing, every story I tell, every move I make, must move the audience to laughter, tears, or inspiration. Otherwise, why do it? It's the communication.

Opera was the cinema of its time, so to bring back that popular appeal, you just need to unleash its visceral immediacy and excitement. Most productions don't manage that - but when an opera does do it, you never forget it.

You can't but know that if you can capture the emotions of the audience as well as their minds, the play will work better, because it's a narrative art form.

I feel very giddy with the idea of making my imagination take form and being able to put on a show where people leave feeling like they've experienced something.

I don't know why people are so surprised by my live performances. My approach is so simple; every song I sing, every story I tell, every move I make, must move the audience to laughter, tears or inspiration. Otherwise, why should I do it?

I have no interest in making a work that doesn't elicit a feeling.

Above all, I try to create an emotion to which others can respond.

You have to pay attention to the moments when you've felt on top on the world. I remember the first time I was on stage, I was doing 'West Side Story,' I was 17 and this woman was crying because she liked what I was doing so much.

It's one of the functions of the theater to shock and titillate and appall, apart from entertain and delight.

My proudest moment is when I'm part of a good film, when people are touched by it.

People have cried at a couple of shows. To think that someone could do that for me... Jesus Christ. That's a crazy sign.

The greatest thing in the world as an actor or an artist to connect.

A good actor just wants to deliver the writing to the audience who've paid that night. There's an agonising desire to get it right.

It doesn't matter how big the set is or how florid the music is: if it doesn't touch people's hearts, then I don't want to be in it.