Esa-Pekka Salonen Quotes

When I go in front of an audience, I'll admit I sometimes have a certain amount of fear in me, because maybe the people are not going to accept what I'm doing today. That's bad for any artist, especially if what you're doing is not in line with what's happening today.

Confronting a stadium audience, you can't see the whites of their eyes. It's just an amorphous mass of noise and, of course, you can't see the alleged billions watching at home either, so the degree to which you are intimidated is quite low.

Showing your movie to an audience... it's like your kid doing a piano recital. 'Just let it not fail. Please.'

When you're onstage and you know you're bombing, that's very, very scary. Because you know you gotta keep going - you're bombing, but you can't stop.

I get terrified the first day I'm on a film set. I get nervous walking down a red carpet. I find making speeches the most terrifying thing in the world.

I feel like it's harder to perform in front of a smaller crowd sometimes still than it is a larger crowd.

I think fear is one of the natural states of most actors, to be honest.

I constantly have anxiety about being the lead of the show. I don't talk about it because it scares me. But I've always wanted to be part of something where I could work on a character in such a big manner, and you get offered that with all the trappings of being the lead of the show.

My greatest fear is speaking in public.

Performing was terrifying.

I used to be afraid of looking at the audience.

I think I failed miserably on NewsRadio. I was very nervous because of the caliber of the cast - especially Dave Foley - so I think I did a terrible job.

You worry about whether you are match-fit, coming back to the stand-up stage.

I love pressure in a different sort of way; I enjoy the pressure of getting out and performing for the public. Being compared and judged doesn't seem quite right to me.

I don't want to be able to see the audience.

I did the 'Tonight Show' once, and I choked up. I get intimidated.

You get more nervous in front of a lot of people. That's why, when you play a concerto, you play with a small orchestra, in some place where you don't feel that it is as important as Carnegie Hall.

I'm just terrible at auditions. I don't know how anyone does it.

The most scared I'd ever been was the first time I sang at a rugby match, Australia versus New Zealand, in front of one hundred thousand people. I had a panic attack the night before because people have been booed off and never worked again... just singing one song, the national anthem.

I still get real nervous when I go in front of more than two people.

My greatest fear is speaking in public. You meet, like, um, people who just concentrate on me. I'd rather not have everyone focus on me.

I'm terrified of improv. Improv in a show or in front of an audience sounds terrifying.

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.

Musical auditions are always the worst because you have to sing and act, and that's so stressful.

Live TV would terrify anybody.