Ian Mckellen Quotes

If you are opening a play, a play that's really about something, a play that's really about ideas, you have to find a way to sell that play.

Live theater is just an incredibly powerful medium, and I think anyone who goes, whether they know about it or not, if they see something that sort of fits with them, it's kind of hard to deny that they had a good time.

I'm looking for one of two things and sometimes they dovetail: I'm looking to go into a theatre and see a certain kind of show. And if it's not there, I'd like to do it myself so it would be there.

I love the rehearsal process in the theatre, and the visceral sense of contact and communication with a live audience.

Suddenly we saw that you could do plays about real life, and people had been doing them for some time, but they weren't always getting to the audiences. They were performed in little, tiny, theatres.

I want every movie to have a big audience. I'm always hopeful that it's going to be discovered, and audiences are fantastic that way because every once in a while they surprise you. I didn't think 'Beautiful Mind' was going to be that kind of global success.

I directed Bebe Neuwirth in 'Here Lies Jenny' at the Post Street Theatre. I was gobsmacked - the audiences were extremely knowledgeable, affectionate, interested, and not cynical.

All I wanted to do was create theater for us, for our generation, for the people of this planet. And it's so rare that the art that you are making is reaching a huge mass of people.

I was 17 when I first acted on stage. I was a part of an Urdu adaptation of 'Spartacus' in the titular role.

I need an audience to look at what I've done so I can understand it, so I can step back and watch them respond and figure out what they're understanding about what I'm trying to do and what they're confused about.

I actuall have to defend realism in theatre because I think TV does it badly - so corrupted by layers of bureaucrats who want to leave examination or psychology.

The great thing about theatre is that the performance develops over the run - it changes each time.

'Hedwig' was born in '94. I was thinking of a theater piece; Hedwig was one of the characters.

When I made 'Pizza,' all I had in my mind was to make the film reach as many people as possible.

WWE definitely gives you the forum, the stage to do different things and see what works. That's the cool thing about being in front of a live audience every single week in WWE. You get instant feedback.

As an artist, you're thankful to get a shot at a story more than once, because it doesn't happen all the time. Whether you talk about 'Hamlet' or 'Death of a Salesman,' you always want to see what the next group of actors will do.

Fans be reflecting the way I be making music.

Theater can be elusive and poetic, but it doesn't thrive when it doesn't reach an audience.

'Tommy' was my first Broadway show. Long Pause. I don't know how you can surpass the excitement or get more excited or feel more on top of the world than when you are sitting in a room singing The Who, and Pete Townshend is sitting there tapping his foot.

To me, mass media is when you are able to use a platform to reach an audience on a large, global scale, and I think YouTube has certainly achieved that and is still finding ways to bring a wider range of content to its audience.

We couldn't even contemplate doing 'Hairspray' without a live audience.

I've always wanted to be an actor who connects with families because once they come to watch your film in the theatres, it becomes a big deal. That's how you sell four tickets at one go.

Generally in the theatre, you spend some portion of the performance convincing people they have done the right thing in buying the ticket, that this is the play they want to watch.

The Web has incredible potential for an artist who keeps in touch with millions of people.

I'm a drama kid at heart. That is definitely where my heart and soul is. I did 'Hairspray' in high school - I was Seaweed.