Marisa Tomei Quotes

I record cello Etudes that are fewer than four minutes long and post them on YouTube. How can one execute fully-formed ideas with utmost perfection, yet stay free enough to allow improvisatory nuance? This has immediate application in almost every area of life, but especially in performance.

Every time Jimmy Scott sings, it's the same but slightly different. I don't know how he does that or where he gets that from. I think it's instinct. Nothing he does is by chance; he's in complete control of what he's doing. He's just beautiful and unique.

I don't think I handle the notes much differently from other pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, there is where the artistry lies!!

The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.

The art of interpretation is not to play what is written.

I always enjoy rhythms and melodies, but I always use my voice as more of an instrument and less of a soapbox for me to say or to preach.

Ballet is such a disciplined craft and it has given me a good grounding.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

I think this orchestra's strengths involve drama and voice.

The ballet embodies the notes of music. And sometimes you almost feel like you can see the notes dance up there on the stage.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

Music is the silence between the notes.

My varying pairs of legs can be quite practical or quite impractical, and I don't judge them either way. Some are for getting around a 12-hour day, pounding the pavement, and some are to feel like I can transform my own body into a workable, changing piece of art.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.

You can time a part perfectly and play it badly. And some people have very individual offbeat timing, which is their own. It works simply because they are who they are.

I think rock & roll has prepared me for a lot of flexibility.

When we separate music from life we get art.

Ballet is like any other art form in that we all start out knowing nothing about it.

Music is extremely intuitive, which acting too in a different way.

If you listen to the way I speak, I have a lot of rhythm, use a lot of accents. When I'm playing my instrument, that concept comes through very clearly.

A lot of those little things that I really like doing are just moments of cool articulation, just little moments of phrasing that probably go over everybody's head.

But however measurable, there is much more life in music than mathematics or logic ever dreamed of.

Talent will only take you so far, and it is your ability to feel the music and explore a movement that will bring you the greatest pleasure in dance.

Music needs room to breathe.