Billy Porter Quotes

I think the way I sort of approach it is, you just sort of keep your head down and focus on what you are doing and making shows that people will want to see on Thursday night.

I watch everybody every night, from sitting down to being on their feet at the end, and I feel a sense of reinvention, of caring, presenting these songs in their purest form.

The wonderful thing about theater as an art form is it's a purely empirical art form. It's all about what works. And every show, every production, is created anew right from the moment you go into the rehearsal hall.

The point of theatre is transformation: to make an extraordinary event out of ordinary material right in front of an audience's eyes. Where the germ of the idea came from is pretty much irrelevant. What matters to every theatre maker I know is speaking clearly to the audience 'right now.'

Acting is the most communicative thing I can imagine doing.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

Acting is my first focus, but at the core, I'm a storyteller, and however that comes out is fine with me.

I am 82 years old. I imagine that I will keep on writing as long as anyone wants to keep reading.

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

Well, acting itself is a form of rebellion, always. Getting up there in front of people, telling stories - you're kind of going against the grain to begin with, wanting to do that, don't you think? Why else would you do it? Except maybe as kind of a way to affirm your very existence.

I really loved what I was doing being creative and being funny as a stand-up comedian.

I'll tell you what I love about directing: the surprise. You never know what's going to happen with your piece until an audience weighs in.

I know one thing - if I didn't have TV and theatre and radio, the world would be a much more boring place.

In my opinion, there's nothing new in the theatre, ever. Theatre-makers are thieves, in the honourable tradition of charlatans. They fake it very, very well indeed for the entertainment of everybody else.

I'm motivated by entertaining people.

I think it's an actor's responsibility to change every time. Not only for himself and the people he's working with, but for the audience. If you just go out and deliver the same dish every time... it's meat loaf again... you'd get bored. I'd get bored.

I mean, I don't know anything else that I would try to do, but it's a very frustrating thing to do, because you are trying to take what's a fantasy in your head and make it live through the minds of 200 people.

I just want to act. I just want to do the work.

When I was little, I was a voracious reader, and that really led me to acting as well. I loved being transported into someone else's life, and that's what reading provided me. I also really love to entertain people.

I do feel it's important to entertain people. I try to.

Acting is way of making yourself exist.

Listen, acting is not surgery, it's entertainment. You're doing something to hopefully move people, to make them laugh, to transport them. But actors are vulnerable, and the reason we're vulnerable is that we're always trying to recreate human behaviour.

My focus is trying to make great music and putting on great shows, and whatever happens beyond that is a bonus to me.

As an actor, it's my job to make everything interesting and exciting and new. If I'm not doing my job well, then I'm stealing.

Theater is about surprises and things that you haven't seen before on stage.