William T. Vollmann Quotes

It would have to be connected with performance art somehow, either in the front of the house or the back. I was myopic about this from fourth grade on.

Yes, I believe stories are very important to all performances. The life story of the performer shapes their work, and the life stories of the audience alter how they receive the work, what they read into the performer.

I'm not a great writer of literature. I'm an entertainer.

The person whose work introduced me to the craft was Lorraine Hansberry. The person who taught me to love the craft was Tennessee Williams. The person who really taught me the power of the craft was August Wilson, and the person who taught me the political heft of the craft was Arthur Miller.

If I have a long period of time away from acting, I tend to write.

It's a lucky life to be a playwright.

Theatre is like an actor's nectar, like how cinema is a director's medium.

I think theater is so undervalued. I have seen things there that have been far more vivid than things that actually have happened.

Theatre is an actor's medium. An actor has little control over a film. Which is why most actors who have done theatre, and then come to films find the former more creatively satisfying.

Pure dance form is not dying.

When classical singers or dancers look at cinema with derision, I have half a heart to tell them that they're wrong. They're losing a platform.

I've always considered rock 'n' roll, the music and the dancing, an art form.

Acting is probably what I'm best at, but there are certain stories kind of rattling around in my head that I like the idea of developing over time.

For me, acting is sacred.

It was my dream to start my creative journey with a Marathi play, but sadly nothing materialised. So, I took up some good English plays that were offered to me.

Opera is a very stimulating place to work, and I believe it offers the most intense theatrical experience possible.

When I was about 12, I saw Mark Rylance do this play in New York City called 'Jerusalem' and that really changed the game for me.

I think theater is very much my natural home. But the truth is that the older I've got, and the more I've written film and television, I find it incredibly hard to write theater.

Musical theater has sort of always been there for me, but I haven't always treated it with the same reverence as it's treated me.

I work a lot of things out on stage nowadays rather than writing them in big blocks.

I wrote my first play because I wanted to try directing something, and I couldn't afford the rights - it was an adaptation of a book called 'The Wave' by Morton Rhue.

Among my classical dances, I loved my 'Mrig Trishna' dance. People should try that on stage. I don't know why they don't. It's beautifully written.

Any sort of performance was always what I was really born to do.

I find theater emotionally expensive and all-involving. You have to pour so much blood and passion and heart into it. And so much time. Why do that for something that's only vaguely interesting and anyone can do it?

From playwrights I had never heard of and performance forms I had never seen to sculpture and painting, I gained immense experience as an actor in National School of Drama (NSD). I discovered what discipline and good taste in the theatre means.