Lorraine Toussaint Quotes

We actors are superstitious creatures. We do all the homework and we put all of the components together, but there's always one key aspect that we're not in charge of, really, and that's magic. You are always on the lookout for where and how that magic is going to ignite. When you have worked as much as I have and have sought it out as often as I do, you get very clear that it will come at very, very odd, unexpected moments.

I Still Approach A Scene As One Would Approach A Guitar Solo. You Don't Exactly Know How You're Going To Phrase This Or That. Which I Think Is Beautiful. That Idea Of Chance.

I don't know - it's a bit of a mystery of how things come about when they do. I don't have a scientific explanation for it. Sometimes when you're writing a song, you don't know where you're going.

You can't really plan with acting!

If a piece of genius comes, it comes, and it if doesn't, it doesn't.

I don't know how to make magic. For most songwriter's that has only happened once or twice, and I don't know how to re-create that. I know that there are some tricks and tools, but the magic is the amazing part.

When I'm asked about my work, I try to explain that there is no mystery involved. It is work. But things happen all the time that are unexpected, uncontrolled, unexplainable, even magical. The work prepares you for that moment. Suddenly the clouds roll in and the soft light you longed for appears.

I sort of have various sort of theories when people ask me about songwriting because it is a mystery. You don't really know. Sometimes you can do it and sometimes you can't. It's really peculiar.

A lot of what I do is about being in the moment and I think that's hard for people to get. I like it when things suddenly affect the painting. I mix up this red and it affects the whole painting or this little bit of white falls down there, and something changes the whole nature of the thing. The residue on what happens, that's what's in the paintings.

I don't know if there's any formula. I'm not sure I believe in that, to be honest. I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to music. Sometimes it hits and sometimes it doesn't, really.

For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment and renewal... has always been the work of other actors.

Although idea and form are ultimately paramount in my work, so too are chance, accident, and rawness.

Sometimes the directors were afraid of what they brought out of me.

As artists, we are so not in control most of the time of the content or the narrative of our characters, and sometimes writing takes a turn and it's not something we necessarily have control over. It's just a lot of random dumb luck, so when things click, you've just got to enjoy it.

You write a hit the same way you write a flop.

The imagination is part of the arsenal that actors draw from.

As an actor, you are always looking for something fresh and interesting and not ordinary.

Acting is a strange job because your control is very limited.

Every acting gig isn't the same, every writing job isn't the same, every live performance isn't the same - the challenge is the level of difficulty or ease, and that may vary.

You and I and everybody in show business and the entertainment industry fly by the seat of our pants. We don't know quite what is going to happen.

Every song I've written is luck, I think; it's luck - 'How did that just happen?'

Books are magic: you never know where they're going to end up.

I think acting is a gift.

I don't know what the secret is when I am writing it - it really is a surprise to me.

Anyone who has been given the gift of being opposite an actor who gives and gives, it just makes you better.