Raza Jaffrey Quotes

For my generation of actors, it was about the theatre. Television didn't exist. Coaxial cable didn't exist.

I just love the hours of the theatre, I love the way it operates. I always say that when you're doing a play it's like getting a shot of B12, and when you do television for a long series you need a shot of B12.

What I love about a play is that it's such an investment because only time can create a lot of what happens onstage.

I do most of my work on the stage, and typically once the show is over, it's over.

In live stage, the actor lives.

Acting in a stage play is like working the evening shift in an office.

I'd never been in play long enough for the flowers to die in the dressing room.

Acting is ephemeral. You can't hang it on a wall. You can't throw it off. And you can't bring it out of a closet. It's there one night and it's gone the next, at least with stage acting anyhow.

The difference with doing a play is that you are in control. In film you are in the hands of the director and the editor and the producer.

There are always leading characters. There are always complex characters; there are very rewarding plays with great directors and tremendous playwrights, yeah. I've done a lot of things with theater that I'm very, very proud of.

I'm always up for going back to the stage.

Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.

I spent a long time in London on the stage, and you knew exactly what you were going to be doing. You not only knew the performance, but you also knew exactly where you would stand.

I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.

I love flexing theater muscles. Television has merits as well, but there's no substitute for live theater.

I've really grown to love film, but I think occasionally you need to get up on a stage and see what's going on.

I enjoy theatre tremendously, and there's nothing like a live performance.

I trained in the theatre and I love the theatre. I get such a thrill seeing anything in the theatre.

I love stage work. The thing about plays is that they're perfectible. With film, you shoot that take and maybe another. During 'Spamalot,' I rewrote Act II three times.

I'm not from a theatrical background where people do like to work it out on some stage space.

I enjoy that with theater, you can just go into a room with a paper bag lunch: there're no cables, no electricity. It's the purest experience.

Theater is a local art. You perform for the people in the theater that day.

Plays are wonderfully different than short stories, first because it's a story that's on a stage, but there's a different sort of tension that appears on stage - you get to see your characters in a different way - like with lights.

When I was a kid, to me, the Evergreen Players were the big time.

I come from the theatre; my bones are in the theatre. It's as natural as breathing to want to be in the theatre.