Leontyne Price Quotes

When I'm singing or on stage, I become complete all of a sudden. I'm whole. I don't think I've really had that in so many other things in my life.

I've always felt a spiritual connection with acting. And I felt whole when I was onstage.

My acting gives me my self-worth.

I love being on stage. There's nothing better than that feeling; ever since the first time I was on stage, I was like, 'Oh, this is what it means to be fully alive and satisfied.' I don't think anything's as satisfying as a play.

I just try to do things on stage that I think the audience would enjoy. And I try to draw on and add to acts that I've enjoyed watching.

Performing is one of the best feelings I know!

If you're up there [on stage] thinking about what you're doing, you're just not there and it's not going to happen.So trying to learn how to overcome those - which is a normal thing to do. You're in front of a lot of people. People are going to get very self-conscious. So you have to learn to sort of overcome that tendency towards self-consciousness and just blow it wide open. And you jump in and join all those people that are out there enjoying what you're doing together.

Sometimes, you go - you achieve a few things in life. I have achieved more career success than I ever experienced or that I ever thought. And I just realized, it doesn't make you happy. It's an elemental truth. It's so true.

Every time I go out on a stage I consider myself very lucky. Because, in a time where people are economically thinking about what to go and see - so, when I am on a stage, and it doesn't matter where I am, that's my favorite show. I come home after and say "That was my favorite show".

It's impossible for me to play a part without thinking about the audience.

I don't think I've ever been personally fulfilled performing. It's kind of a challenging thing; it's more of a sacrifice for the people that I love.

Being considered beautiful at a young age sends confusing signals. You think people only like you because of your beauty.

Whenever I'm onstage, I try my best not to think that I'm performing. It's simply another part of my day.

I think I always knew I was going to somehow be on a stage. I was quite an extrovert, as a child. And I did a lot of music, when I was younger, so I thought I was going to go into music, but I fell into acting, in a really weird way.

Every night I get up on stage, I love it. I never get like, 'Oh, I'm bored, I want to go home.' I never, ever get like that.

I think success is about purpose. People ask about success at different points in your life. As I look back, I think people that are successful feel good about what they are doing, and they can look back at what they've done and they feel good about it. People sometimes ask about success and they say, "What's your legacy?" and I say, "I think it's really a dumb question." I think the question is: What am I doing now? Do I feel good about myself? Am I proud of myself? Whatever purpose there is in life, I think success is about purpose. It's not about material things.

Actors want to show off and dance in front of you and get your love, because they don't think they're worthy of it in any other way.

I'm the most mellow person offstage. I think it's just, going onstage lets me get out some frustration that I'm too shy to do in real life. Instead of doing it in private, I'd rather do it in front of 1,000 people who've paid $25 to see me lose my mind.

I come down as an actor and my marks are already laid out on the floor - somebody else organized what I'm going to do. I think, why am I here? And why I'm here is to express the words with some sort of vague emotion and make them seem real. I wanted to go back to how it was before.

I've always wanted to be in musicals, not just in film, but on stage. I think it's a wonderful medium.

I consider theater, this is a vacation for me from LA, I sort of view this as I get to have this vacation and during my vacation I get to work on acting. It's like an acting class. And if I go too long without doing a play, I just feel empty. Like approaching a role, I feel like the pool is very shallow, like I'm drawn from it. So I need to come back and do a play, fortunately I've been able to, every couple of years.

Performing my show is something I constantly think about.

I don’t think there's ever been a point in my career where I've said, 'I've made it.' What does that mean, 'I've made it?' Made it to what? If you say, 'I've made it.' then are you finished? I don't want to be finished. I don't want to quit.

I work when I feel like I can do something that pleases me, that I think I can give a little more than I've given up to yesterday.

Until you divest yourself of the notion that you are a collection of needs, an empty vessel that someone else must fill up, there will be no safe place to harbor yourself, no safe shore to reach. As long as you think mostly of getting, you will have nothing real to give.