Michael Rapaport Quotes

With 'Friday Night Lights,' we were encouraged to make it our own and improvise as much as we wanted.

Even when I was in school shows, in elementary school doing plays, I'd always go off book and start improvising.

I still do miss the freedom to play any kind of character I wanted to play.

There aren't any rules, as far as anything-and that applies especially to writing songs, whatever gets the point across. So you're just kind of brought up to feel-in any field, if you say you can do it, do it. There it is.

I personally don't lock in a performance, because I do leave room for things to happen, so I just make sure I'm very intimate with what I'm saying and why I'm saying it so that no matter what happens, we can do whatever we want to do and leave space for play.

The most fundamental important thing for me as an actor is maintaining a sense of play. It's so important.

I think I'm true to myself - you hear that actors have like plans. I'm gonna do this type of movie, then I'm gonna play this kind of character, and that'll get me from A to B. I've never done that. I honestly just follow my gut and I don't think you can go wrong with that.

We only have one rule and that is there are no rules, so stand up and sing as much as you want to.

A lot of young actors have the idea that, "I've got to do this right. There's a right way to do this." But there's no right or wrong. There's only good and bad. And "bad" usually happens when you're trying too hard to do it right. There's a very broad spectrum of things that can inhibit you. The most important thing for actors - and not just actors, but everybody - is to feel loose enough to create what you want to create, and be free to try anything. To have choices.

Acting is the only time when I truly maintain the spontaneity that I want to be present at all times.

I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.

I like to improvise.

I really feel that the talent I have is acting. Freedom and the possibility of play-that is what I like to have.

I want a part where I can use my own hair, my own voice, and maybe even be literate.

I get burned out on standup. But I like acting. I do like it. But sometimes you just feel like a monkey. You just feel like a complete tool. But I like it. I do like it. Stand-up is just more free. A lot more freedom because you just do what you want to do.

In a way, as an actor, you do all the preparation and then you want to forget it and just play the scene. As a director, you can't forget it because somebody will remind you that you forgot something. But you can know your plan well enough that you still have a certain amount of freedom.

We go in and I do my thing, and then we supplement it with whatever we want.

The fun stuff comes when someone is not so strict on sticking to the script. You're allowed the spontaneity, and great moments can happen.

As a child, acting just seemed like a natural extension of my love of play - and if you've forgotten how to play, you shouldn't be an actor.

The essence of play is that the sequence of actions is fluid and scattered.

I've always related music to those moments when someone turns you loose on something and they haven't told you how to do it.

I feel when acting, I am sometimes overly self-conscious; I think, 'Going, no, don't, put your eyebrow back where it was and, you know, turn to the left.' You know, I'm sort of very consciously adopting this character. But with music, I don't know. I found it was a question of just closing my eyes and just sort of letting things come out.

I love improvisation.

I can tell jokes. I can talk to the audience. I can relax. I can change my songs whenever I want. I can change the tempos. I can change the mood, because I'm in charge.

I just like being all over the place and writing whatever comes to mind. Having the tools? It's such a gift.