Wallace Shawn Quotes

I talk so much on stage - too much. I always get in trouble. But it's just the best to be able to connect with people.

It's hard to get intimate with an audience.

They were stars on this stage, each playing to an audience of two.

There's nothing like the energy in a small comedy club room or a small theater when it's going really well. I can see everybody's face practically in the whole room. There's no cameras in the way, and it's just me.

I had no fear of speaking to large audiences.

I was always drawn to standing up in front of people.

I always knew that if I was ever going to perform something that I wrote in front of an audience, I was going to do the thing I most like to experience as an audience member, which is to be tricked.

The talking shows allow me to come out of my cave and that's why those shows go on for so long. I hate walking off stage. Sometimes I walk off and I miss them as I'm walking off the stage. I wonder if they'll let me go another hour. That's why I do it: to communicate, to get points across.

Most of the time when you do a job, a play or a film, you're wondering, "Will there be an audience?"

The great risk is always saying, "how will I communicate what I'm trying to get across to a room full of strangers sitting in the dark watching a stage?"

I've done a lot of theater, and I know that it's a different audience each time who doesn't know the story, and we have to tell it.

Many more people saw me on TV than will ever get to see me on stage, but I do love being in the same room as the people I'm telling the story to.

There are an infinite number of ways to be moved in the theater.

Strangely enough I'm better on a stage. I love that I feel like I blossom in front of a whole bunch of people.

The art of acting is to pitch good. You do the pitching and hope that the other person catches the ball and does some good pitching back to you.

I can't imagine anything more debilitating, anything more challenging, anything more thrilling than to get on a stage and do any kind of play. It is such a vulnerable place for any actor to be in.

I always said put me in front of 40 or 50,000 people and play hockey, I'm comfortable there. Put me in front of 50 people to talk or get in front of, and that's where I'm probably the least comfortable.

When a performance isn't working, it's usually because the actor is trying to do something and they're not able to express their idea very well. It's a muddled expression.

You have to open up on stage.

If you're in a room and can be seen by actors, you need to understand that you can be felt by them.

When you are on stage, you don't see faces. The lights are in your eyes and you see just this black void out in front of you. And yet you know there is life out there, and you have to get your message across.

What is a good performance? It lies in the hands and head of a performer... the shortest way between two people is not a straight line.

If you interview people or friends who work with me, they would say I'm private or internal or don't emote a lot. Yet I do it every day for 10 million people. I just don't do it for the 30 people I'm in the room with.

I won't wear rings and jewelry on the stage because I don't want you looking at my hands. I want you hearing what I'm saying.

An 'OMG' of mine would probably be speaking on stage and performing in front of thousands of people!