Jens Lekman Quotes

There's nothing more vulnerable than just standing in front of a thousand people, or ten thousand people, and doing your best to entertain them, touch them in some way.

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.

It wasn't so much that I was all alone on stage, but it was the realization of how much you need the response-you need the audience to tell you where to go.

I've never not appeared in front of a live audience for any longer period than a month or two.

Once I'm on stage, the energy of the crowd wipes my nerves away.

If you don't have a certain amount of stage fright, then it's not going to be that interesting. It's not going to have the inner vibration. I think screen work needs inner vibration.

Pretty much every time I try something different or do something in front of a live audience, I truly think they might throw peanuts at me.

I can deal with people who watch me on stage but I am not good in communicating with people any other way than through my work.

I'm nervous performing because it's such a weird thing to do, standing on stage demanding people's attention.

The stage always terrified me. The live audience is just one thing I bewilderingly look back on and say, 'How did I ever participate in that?'

I get a little teary on stage sometimes. It can be really emotional when it dawns on you that people are singing along and having fun.

There are times I've been surprised by how emotional I can be on stage.

Yes, sharing super-personal experiences is scary, but I can only get up on stage and perform it if I really connect with the music.

When you're playing music and you're starting to expose yourself for the first time, there's nothing more powerful than being listened to and being actually heard.

I think actually performing on stage when everyone's facing you and you're one person facing them, that is quite a lonely thing in a strange way. You have to be quite insular from everybody else, you've got thousands of people staring at you and you're just on your own.

I don't necessarily feel 100 per cent comfortable standing up on stage in front of lots of people, but I don't think most people would. It's a pretty bizarre thing to do. It can also be absolutely incredible having thousands of people singing back lyrics that you might have written in your bedroom or wherever.

Half the time, when I first run onstage, I can't look directly at the audience just because of self-consciousness. It's human nature. Sometimes you feel like the man, and sometimes you don't. But sometimes that self-conscious energy is good for the show, it draws people in more.

I thought, I might not look my best, I've forgotten half the words to my songs and I'm suffering from post-traumatic stress, but I've just got to get out there and do it.

Being onstage is a way of harnessing your vulnerability and using the adrenaline to be creative. It's a very vulnerable place to be - technically, emotionally, and physically - but I love it.

I go on stage, it's like I'm leading you into battle; you are not all going to be here at the end.

The big catalyst was seeing my sister, when I was 11, doing a dramatic recital. When I saw her on the stage and everyone listening to her so patiently, quietly, that's all I wanted: for someone to look at me and listen to me, but in some beautiful and artistic way.

I feel like when I go on stage I feel so excited at the prospect that there will be a true connection.

There is nothing more distressing or tiresome than a writer standing in front of an audience and reading his work.

I think I will always be performing; I don't think I can take that away. Because I really just enjoy it. I like getting up to sing; I like the challenge of learning new material and singing it in front of an audience.

Whenever I walk out on a stage, I'm begging for affection.