Petula Clark Quotes

I put myself into character for my songs.

When an actor sings a song, he will be able to bring forth the emotion in it much better than a playback singer.

I think you can teach people a technique - you can teach them how to use their voices, how to breathe properly, how to move their limbs a certain way. But to actually explain how one performs comedy or drama or tragedy isn't the same as the movements one makes.

I tend to explain my songs.

The thrill of hearing your own voice recorded is still there, I still love it, going into the studio and thinking how can I sing this song and between the producers and the musicians you find a way of doing it.

Most actors don't really have a director's sensibility. They have an actor's sensibility.

Singing is incredibly physical.

When you sing a song the way I sing it, you have to use your whole body. It's almost like working out.

I listened to Billie Holiday a lot in order to learn to sing. She remains one of the extraordinary jazz singers. But my intent is to become my own voice, to be able to interpret these songs in my own way.

I think singing and acting go hand in hand. Take an R&B singer: one song says, 'I love you,' the next is, 'Baby, don't leave me', the next is, 'If you leave me I don't care.' You have to drop in and out of different perspectives.

I'm not really a songwriter - I'm an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.

I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them.

Voice acting is very different from live-action. You only have one tool to convey emotion. You can't sell a line with a look. It's all about your vocal instrument.

I know I'm an opera singer, but we're actors, too.

During 'Torches,' I was more concerned with communicating the spirit of the song than the actual lyrics.

When I am on the opera stage, I am playing someone else. In recitals, I even have the chance to talk to the audience, which is something you don't get to do in opera.

Actors and singers share common ground in that they both express something.

If I'm anything, I'm not a singer but I'm a song stylist.

Doing voices is like singing and remembering songs.

Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but I enjoy anything where you get to flex your acting muscles, you get to really go for it.

For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.

Singers have a lot in common with actors because you have to dig deep into a song and show the audience what you are feeling as you sing.

I really know how to sing and create and put things together that entertain... be it controversially or be it from music or acting.

Completing your performance with your own voice is so important. It's not only my face and expressions... the voice added to it always feels good.

I'm in love with the way that Ella Fitzgerald delivered a lyric. She would deliver a lyric with the kind of clarity that would make you wonder why it was written, and make you think about the writer. I think every writer hopes an Ella of any genre or anytime gets a hold of their work and works the song like that.