Performance Legacy Quotes

Every role affects an actor a little bit. There's always a little chunk of a character that stays left over in your heart.

My job as a performer is to make sure that whatever happens in a performance lives in somebody else, that it's memorable... If you forget tomorrow what you heard yesterday, there's really not much point in you having been there - or me, for that matter.

I think that what 'Oz' did is it spawned a great generation of television production. But people know its place in television and just in great dramas. It's the foundation of my career. Most producers, show runners, directors, and casting directors put me in movies based on my performance in that show.

There is a mysterious way in which orchestras keep a sense of their history and what they've done. I still listen to the L.A. Philharmonic and feel that Giulini was there.

When doing a revival, you have a lot of people asking you questions about someone who played it before, and to me that's neither here nor there - it has no bearing on the material that I have to use. The material that is written down in a score and script that the writers originally used is what I use.

I can't believe Tina Turner actually was on the same stage. I can't believe I set foot on the same stage, and it's going to be an album, people are going to buy it, and it's going to be a video.

Music is timeless, so I want to give people shows they'll never forget so that I can do this forever.

When you realize that the uncut 'Porgy and Bess' started me off, that I'd have the opportunity to do a ton of 'Stoppard,' 'Hairspray,' that I'm able to do 'Il Trittico' at the Met - how do I top that?

To me, dance is so ethereal and elusive, so much of an illusion. After a performance, that's it. With vocals and music, you have good recordings.

No one likes to think of themselves as a one-trick pony as an actor, but on the other hand, it's nice to be part of something that has an international popularity, that is seen literally everywhere in the world and stays in the marketplace forever.

We perform the show for the people that are in the room and then that performance is theirs forever and ever.

The most challenging part of playing Magenta was knowing that there have been so many great Magentas before me, including Patricia Quinn in the original 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'.

Be it 'Thevar Magan' or 'Magalir Mattum,' people still remember me for what I have performed and when it comes to characters, I don't want to restrict myself.