Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

I've never really prided myself as being quick on my feet. Maybe you've had the experience where somebody's asked you a question and you give an answer, then later in the day you think, "Oh, I wish I'd said that!" I tend to journal these things and put the answers in sermons.

When I give a lot of speeches, they're always on the fly. I mean, I know what I'm going to say roughly, but I do not - will not read.

If I have one criticism of the other late-night shows, it's that they're almost entirely scripted.

Obama isn't good off the cuff, especially when challenged; he is far better with a prepared speech.

Sometimes we had to improvise. I hate to improvise because I felt like I couldn't find words.

My whole act is off the top of my head.

I am terrible at memorizing things. Hence, ad-libbing.

The key to Presidential debates is to rehearse those [dramatic] moments but don’t let them look scripted.

Churchill has spent the best years of his life preparing impromptu remarks.

I've had some shows where I really plan out what I'm going to say. Then I've had other shows where I'm like, 'Take a sip of the Ole Smoky Moonshine and just let it be natural and cross your fingers that you say the right things.'

I have this habit of not rehearsing a lot; I don't go on practicing my dialogues, pauses, and actions.

I never have fixed subjects that I discuss on stage. I never go on with any particular subjects in mind.

I'm a chronic ad-libber. So whoever hires me, often to their chagrin, should know that I will be talking a bunch of smack.

It may seem like improv because it flows quite naturally, and a little bit of leeway for improvisation is good, but you have to be judicious with it. So it's good, but sometimes people deify it. You can't improvise your way out of a paper hat.

I'm not one to dwell on rehearsal or preparation. I like to just go out and do it. Of course, that doesn't mean actors are free to do whatever they like, they're always being directed.

When you work without a script, you are in a sense working in a much more improvisational way than when you are prepared totally.

I didn't write my speech until the night before, and even then I refused to write it out like I would say it, preferring to keep cribbed notes I could come back to if necessary. I wanted this to feel like a conversation because it was what I wanted to say that mattered, not how it looked on paper.

I have to go over my carefully prepared ad-libs.

You kind of half-prepare a speech in your head, and then you get up there and then you end up saying nothing that was in your head before you went up there. It's a very weird thing. I never do award speeches too well.

I don't think fast enough on my feet in terms of the writing to change the script too much when I'm shooting it. I like to have it set and done and know that I feel good about it and I might add a few lines here and there while we're shooting, if I think of a new joke, I might toss it in, but for the most part, I try to stick to the written script and have all the latitude exist within that.

If you want me to speak for two minutes, it will take me three weeks of preparation. If you want me to speak for thirty minutes, it will take me a week to prepare. If you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready now.

I generally have a real strong idea or a strong punchline, and I just try to get to it by rambling around, as I don't like to memorize words.

Trump is not haphazard. Trump has the ability to improvise at a rally or go off the prompter at some point.

I need to be spontaneous sometimes. Sometimes I find that the little detail or nuance that you add to it that's based on what's happening at the time that's not very rehearsed often ends up feeling like the funniest thing.

I've talked in front of ... like... a lot of big business people about stuff I didn't even know.