Peter Hammill Quotes

The first time I thought I should be an actor was in school. I thought, 'At least this is something for which I won't have to study.' But I've realised that an actor needs to be constantly unsure about what he's doing and about what's going on around him. The moment you think you've nailed it, you're dead.

I love being onstage and I love to perform. To be honest with you, I'm more comfortable performing than I am in an everyday situation, which I can't quite explain.

I'm hardly a known name, but I don't want to go, like, 'Oh, people call me a storyteller comedian, let me just go up and just talk about my day.' I don't want that to happen.

I know when I am on stage and I'm kind of on the right track - hopefully most of the time. But a lot of time I'm not.

One of the hardest things to do in acting is to stop thinking about yourself and stop being self-conscious.

The thing is, I'm happiest when I'm on stage.

On stage, you have to have incredible confidence, or you would stop doing it. But I don't think I will ever get to the point where I go, 'I know exactly what I am doing,' and I don't think I want to.

I don't like planning what am I gonna say to the crowd. Sometimes the show takes a whole different twist.

I'm not the kind of person who ever thought, 'Oh, a one-woman show - bring it on!'

I can't say I'm confident in my abilities as an actor.

Stand-up is not something that you're good at right away. You have to do it a ton. But, I think I got to shave a year off because I didn't have to get over stage fright.

I'd go onstage doing this thing, trying to fill this arena that I can't fill because I don't understand what this is. It's like you're given a job that's beyond you. And it's taken me years to realize what works in those big situations.

I never know how much of what I say is true.

My ideal setting is I walk from the streets, backstage, and straight onto the stage. Two minutes, and I am on the stage. That way, in my head I have gone from my world and then into a social setting with my friends.

One place that I really feel comfortable is being a comedienne. I'm very socially inept. There's so many things that I can not do in life, and this is, like, the one thing that I have mastery over. It's my world. And anybody who's coming to the show, it's like they're coming because they know that this is my world.

It feels like the more I'm out there in the public eye, the more criticism I get. You need to have confidence - that's what it takes to walk out there and sing a song in front of a huge group of people.

With acting, I always feel conscious of what I'm doing.

I could never do stand-up because it's that thing of having to get up on stage. And out of every 10 jokes you tell, nine of them have to get a really good response.

I need to do more on stage. I've got to get my fix!

A live performance is the same no matter what genre it is. Wrestling, rock 'n roll, hosting, acting - it's the same thing.

I like getting up in front of an audience. It's fun when you go to a baseball game and the crowd is cheering you. I can't deny it. And it's very funny, too. Sometimes you're shy; you go somewhere and everyone's looking at you, so you feel a little self-conscious.

On talk shows I ask myself, 'What am I doing here?'

Sometimes I find myself in this super-raw place onstage where I'm like, 'Maybe that's not the best thing. Maybe I need to shut down a little.'

The more you perform and get out there, I guess the more practice you have at it and the better you are and the more comfortable you are on stage.

I'm so bad at spontaneous impressions.