Laura Benanti Quotes

Hollywood, America's greatest modern contribution to world culture, is a business, a religion, an art form, and a state of mind.

Hollywood isn't your cesspool, America. It's your mirror.

I consider each performance to be an intimate conversation between me and the audience members.

We're entertainers. We're theatrical.

I think I would not be who I am if I did not have experience both as an audience and as a performer in those early days of my career. It taught me what entertainment is all about.

Having grown up in musical theatre, I know what works and what doesn't.

While acting is a passion, hosting is fun.

I'm a show girl at heart.

'All Stars' is a weird game. The rules are weird. However, I think 'All Stars' mirrors the real industry much more closely than normal seasons of 'Drag Race' do. In the real world of entertainment, it really is about the impressions you leave on your brothers and sisters in the room, and that's kind of what it is about.

The music became secondary to being rock stars.

I've always been an entertainer. It's in my blood, in the sense that I've always loved doing it.

Comics were always the lowest rung on the ladder, front of cloth at the Royal Variety Performance. What that means is you're only there so Take That can set up behind the curtains.

Earlier in my career, I just wanted to be an entertainer.

Dancing for Flo Rida was a great experience.

One day, when I'm unable to physically perform, would I want to pursue more of an acting career? Eh, maybe. But I think my home is with the WWE, being on the road and wrestling in front of a live audience.

I'm not a star, I hate that word, and I'm an entertainer. Stars fall, you know, I'm an entertainer. I want to be known as an entertainer.

I know that my job is to perform, it wouldn't be a very interesting show if I just came out one day and said, "I'm going to sit here in a ball and rock back and forth. And won't you join me for a half hour of sadness."

All Americans born between 1890 and 1945 wanted to be movie stars.

Now in the States if you look at the TV, you see the advertisements, the TV programmes, the pop videos, and the movies, they're all the same style. I think it's very condescending to the audience to assume they only have a three second attention span and so they don't leave anything on the screen for any longer. I don't understand that.

I like entertaining people. I like being on stage. I like being in the life. This is what I do. This is the only thing I know how to do besides rob people and fight. Even when I was robbing people, I was entertaining them. But that's just what I love doing.

Moving people into reality TV is a mistake.

I'm very intrigued that in this culture of reality television and celebrity - which is an enormous industry and generates billions and billions of dollars - we're so resourceful.

People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you.

Your only guidepost is your own instinct and judicious editing. In my stand-up act I learned that in the first 10 minutes I could say anything and it would get a laugh. Then I'd better deliver. In the movie it's the same thing. You get a lot of laughs when people first sit down and then the story better kick in. Many years in front of an audience, I would hope, give me a sense of what works.

Sooner or later, everything turns into television.