Tom Robbins Quotes

Composition is selective improvisation.

That is a big danger, losing your inspiration. When I work in film and television I try to do each take a little differently. I never want to do the same thing twice, because then you're not being spontaneous, you're just recreating something.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

I like being in focus, in the moment, changing and adapting and creating and advancing a scene.

You know. I'll try anything. I'll do anything. I'll explore. Try different takes. All that kind of stuff to do sometimes, to do good performances, but always conducive to having a good time creatively.

I'm not able to go in with an act that I use month to month year to year all the time. It's constantly evolving and changing and that keeps me on my toes but certainly adds to the challenge.

What I have to do as a musician is do everything that is not on the music.

I may play the same songs night to night, but I never play them the same way.

My paintings and comedy have a lot in common. They are both improvisations based on observation.

I try new stuff every time I perform. I have steps I do that I know are definite, and stuff I can make up right then and there and then forget.

I was always interested in choreography - in making people think and feel something.

The combination of what's written and just being in the moment is always the best way. You gotta start out with something solid and then you play.

When I do a take, I very often try things that I haven't planned to try to see if I can pull it off.

I like to improvise.

The artist must continue to look for a new reference. Every day, every performance, every take.

The first condition for making music is not to make a noise.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

As an actor, I'm always up for exploring and trying new things.

You know, working as an actor, I'm always working within my own imagination.

I learned that the best way to work is to allow the scene to live on its own before making major adjustments, whether in rehearsal or on film.

If a leaf fell from a tree, I'd stop juggling and play with the leaf. I went to my prop bag and got a little bandage and stuck the leaf back on the tree. People loved it.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

Every performance is different. That's the beauty of it.

I try to see interviewing as performance art, and just take it as it comes.

I record cello Etudes that are fewer than four minutes long and post them on YouTube. How can one execute fully-formed ideas with utmost perfection, yet stay free enough to allow improvisatory nuance? This has immediate application in almost every area of life, but especially in performance.