Paul Simon Quotes

I feel like you've gotta be able to get up every night in front of a live audience. Whether it's 10 people or 50 people or a hundred people, whether you're in a rock band or doing the comedy circuit.

I am always excited about playing in front of live audiences because I really enjoy it, for the most part.

When I performed at 'Open Mic U.K.' I had this connection with the audience that I'd never felt before, and I loved it. It was my first big thing, and looking out into the crowd... was just amazing.

I'm a live performer and I love playing live.

I have sung to large crowds since then, and there is a feeling that once you get over 100,000 people, you kind of lose the control element, you don't know if you are really getting through or not.

If I live to be 90, and I'm planning to, I'll always love performing for a live audience.

You can only absorb when you look back at photos: like when we played Coachella, and there are thousands of people in the audience, and you just walk on stage.

Whether it's five people or 50,000 people, I always love to perform and feel very blessed that I'm able to do that.

When I'm on stage, my interaction with the audience is something that really makes me come alive. It's a feeling like no other. The energy of the crowd fuels something new inside.

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.

Just me onstage with a mike having an intimate relationship with the audience. I don't get nervous for that. I just get excited.

And it really is a good feeling to get up there and make that sound. I'm not stuck in a time warp, because I can use as many of the old songs as I want to, just the favorites.

I don't get stage fright, I actually love the energy, I love the spontaneity, I love the adrenaline you get in front of a live audience, it actually really works for me.

I love being on stage, I love being able to tell a story, I love the fact that the audience listens and laughs at it. It makes me happy, and it's what I live for.

I take a lot of pride in my live show and put more energy there than I do in the studio.

In theatres, you're kind of disconnected. Also, it's way too big for the likes of me. Unless you're Robin Williams or someone that can fill a stage with movement and energy, it just looks like a small man on a big stage.

Performing live in front of an audience is such a matter of will - all of those things you can do just fine in your basement, suddenly you have to do them in front of hundreds or thousands of people, and it becomes a different matter entirely.

One of the main reasons for wanting to perform live again was to have contact with that audience.

I just feed off the energy of the audience.

There's nothing more fun than being out on stage and getting the vibe from the crowd. There's nothing like being on a set where you are there to make other people happy and to make them laugh. That's the best job in the world.

Playing live is such a total visceral experience, and really, as a musician, you're trained from the beginning to be a live performer.

For me, performing is the biggest part of being a rapper. There's nothing like the feeling of screaming your story to people.

Although there was a point with the Tijuana Brass where we were playing for such huge crowds that I kind of lost contact. At one point, the only connection I had with the audience was with people out there lighting cigarettes.

You look at Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bob Seger. All they ever wanted to do was go out there and entertain, and I'm the same way.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me. Every night I had a live audience of 25,000 people to win over. My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.