Michael Stipe Quotes

When you're on stage, you gotta do it. People pay to see you, and they deserve to be entertained, and you should go out there and really give it your best shot. And that's quite a challenge.

When you pay your money to see me, I want you to have the best concert you can have from me.

You won't see me at a microphone singing and tapping my foot. I spend a lot of money on sets, costumes and sound. I believe people deserve a show. I'm a singer, musician, dancer. I work hard, and I'm soaking wet when I come off.

I'm an entertainer. If people are paying good money for tickets they deserve the best show they can see. I don't get into lighting stuff on fire, but I do believe in going the extra mile.

I believe in professionalism and I believe in putting on the best possible match regardless of the scenario for our audience.

It had been drilled into us that when an audience pays to see a performance, it is entitled to the best performance you can give.Nothing in your personal life must interfere, neither fatigue, illness, nor anxiety--not even joy.

People pay a lot of money to go see shows now, they don't wanna know about your technical problems, or if you're not feeling good, they don't wanna know we have a glitch. It's their night, you better do something to earn that money.

The trick with sequels is, you have to give people what they liked before, yet be innovative enough so they don't feel like they're seeing the same movie.

I like people to go away from a Queen show feeling fully entertained, having had a good time.

To maintain a consistency when people come to see the band takes a lot of work; it takes a lot of discipline. I go to the studio every day and sing and play. I never did that when I was, like, 30. I'd probably have a drink and walk on - and see what comes out. But now if there's ten albums' worth of material people are coming to hear some of, and they've paid money for a ticket, you become a different person when you go on and you want to give the best show you can. You want to be better at what you do.

I just really care about what people see. I want them to know that I'm working hard for this. The artists that I look up to like, you know, Michael, Prince, James Brown. You watch them and you understand that they're paying attention to the details of their art. And they care so much about what they're wearing, about how they're moving, about how they're making the audience feel. They're not phoning it in. They're going up there to murder anybody that performs after them or performs before them. That's what I've watched my whole life and admired.

My dad was a really funny, really talented guy who had a great success in a limited audience. But from him, I learned that he always felt the audience was entitled to 150 per cent. If he was performing at an event, he'd keep playing until the last person had finished dancing.

When I am filming dramas, I lean towards doing what the public wants to see from me.

I love every aspect of live performance and putting our shows together and approaching it from the standpoint of, 'What would we want to see if we were a fan sitting in the audience?'

Who can deny that it was a pleasure to watch Rob Van Dam interact with the audience and tear the house down for 30 minutes a night.

It doesn't matter if I'm playing a lead role or that of a comedian; I want my audience to have entertainment worth their money.

When you're on tour. there's a contract between you and the audience: do what you want, as long as you do what we want. You're having to play with the past at every gig.

My point was to always have my spectators leave saying 'hot damn I got my money's worth.'

Audiences are not interested in watching singers who stand stiffly and sing for three hours.

For me, a show's a show. I try to put on the best show I can for whatever audience or time slot I get.

Generally in the theatre, you spend some portion of the performance convincing people they have done the right thing in buying the ticket, that this is the play they want to watch.

I do think image is important in a band, because when I go see a show, I want to see a show; I don't want to just listen to the music.

With my work in 'Mardaani' being well-received, I am more aware than ever that I have to keep the game up. I don't want to disappoint myself as an actor first and let my audience down.

If your in business your in show business. The moment you get to work your on stage. Give your performance of your life.

"Cannonball Adderley said, 'First 20 minutes we'll jazz out, then the last hour it's gonna be songs that people paid to see.' Which is why he was driving a Rolls-Royce."