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“On The Technique Of Acting” Quotes

I recently read “On The Technique Of Acting: The First Complete Edition of Chekhov’s classic To the Actor” by Michael Chekhov. Below are the quotes I found most interesting. As always, if you like the quotes, please buy the book here.
Screen Shot 2014-05-10 at 6.07.16 PM“When criticized that his notion of Kobe was not what the playwright intended, Chekhov replied that he went beyond the playwright and the play to find Kobe’s true character.” (xii)
“The idea that an actor can “go beyond the playwright or the play” is the first key to understanding the Chekhov Technique and how it differed from Stanislavsky’s early teachings.” (xii)
“Chekhov’s performance was based not on recapturing the experience but on a feverish anticipation of the event.” (xiii)
“Chekhov’s Technique dealt primarily with images, especially visceral ones, that short-circuited complicated and secondary mental processes. Instead of telling the actor “to relax,” Chekhov asked him “to walk [or sit or stand] with a Feeling of Ease.”” (xvii)
“We soon find that we have only to consciously illuminate two or three light bulbs before a chain reaction begins and several more light up without our ever having to give them special attention. When a sufficient number of these light bulbs are shining brightly, we find that inspiration strikes with much greater frequency than before.” (xxxvii)
“This longing for knowledge makes the real artist brave. He never adheres to the first image that appears to him, because he knows that this is not necessarily the richest and more correct. He sacrifices one images for another more intense and expressive, and he does this repeatedly until new and unknown visions strike him with their revealing spell.” (6)
“When one hears an artist say, “I have built my art upon my convictions.” Would it not be better for an artist to say that he has built his convictions upon his art? But this is only true of the artist who is really gifted. Haven’t we noticed that the less talented the person is, the earlier he forms his “convictions” and the longer he tenaciously clings to them?” (6)
“The real beauty of our art, if based on the activity of the Creative Individuality, is constant improvisation.” (19)
“People often want to experience something other than that which they need to experience.” (21)
“The audience became for Vakhtangov the transmitter of public opinion. He listened to it and kept pace with his time, but was never subservient to it.” (22)
“Do the Psychological Gesture and the acting alternately, until it becomes evident to you that behind each internal state or movement in acting is hidden a simple and expressive Psychological Gesture that is the essence of the acting.” (65)
“The nonactor reads the play absolutely objectively. The events, happenings, and characters in the play do not stir his own inner life. He understands the plot and follows it as an observer, and outsider. The actor reads the play subjectively. He reads through the play and by doing so he inevitably enjoys his own reaction to the happenings of the play, his own Will, Feelings, and Images. The play and the plot are only a pretext for him to display, to experience the richness of his own talent, his own desire to act. The nonactor reads the liens while the actor reads between the lines, sees beyond the characters and events of the play.” (71)
“Choose two simple contrasting psychological moments. For instance, one of them can be the word “yes,” pronounced with wrath and power. The other can be the word “no,” spoken softly and full of pleading. Pronounce this “yes,” and then continue to act without any previously thought-out theme, knowing only that your final aim will be the pleading “no.” Allow your soul to make a free and unbroken Transition from one pole to the other.” (73)
“All the lines, all the situations in the play are silent for the actor until he finds himself behind them, not as a reader with good artistic taste, but as a n actor whose responsible task is to translate the author’s language into the actor’s.” (77)
“As soon as the actor becomes aware that the Psychological Gesture is an incessant movement and never a static position, he will realize that its activity is inclined to grow and its Qualities to become stronger and more expressive.” (81)
“Each character on the stage has one main desire, and one characteristic manner of fulfilling this desire. Whatever variations the character may show during the play in pursuing his main desire, he nevertheless always remains the same character. We know that the desire of the character is his Will (“what”), and his manner of fulfilling it is its Quality (“how”). Since the Psychological Gesture is composted of the Will, permeated with the Qualities, it can easily embrace and express the complete psychology of the character.” (90)
“The actor should never worry about his talent, but rather about his lack of technique, his lack of training, and his lack of understanding of the creative process. The talent will flourish immediately of itself as soon as the actor chisels away all the extraneous matter that hides his abilities – even from himself.” (155)
“Chekhov would then being to ask questions; the first was always “Is this predominantly a ‘Thinking’ character, a “feeling’ character, or a ‘Will’ character?'” (160)
“When acting, it is quite valuable to know whether you are working with a character who has strong Will forces and relatively little intellectual power or one who has a strong Feeling life but little ability to take hold of his Will forces.” (160)
“Chekhov would further inquire, “What kind of Thinking does your character have?” Thinking can be cold and hard, like a little black rubber ball, or quick and brilliant, traveling in flashes. It can be fuzzy, light, slow and ponderous, sharp, jagged, penetrating – the types and qualities of Thinking are almost unlimited.” (161)
“The same holds true for Feelings. “What kind of Feeling does your character possess?” The character can have a Feeling life that is intense and passionate, lukewarm and lugubrious, or basically bitter like a lemon. The character can have predominantly heavy Feelings that drag it down, or light sun-filled Feelings that easily radiate to all other characters. The variety is endless.” (161)
“Mischa was also very insistent about our knowing at every moment what our characters wanted. He often said, “Art is not like life. Art cannot be like life, because in life most people do not know what they want. But the actor must always know what the character wants. The character must always have clear-cut Objectives!”” (161)
He said, “For the actor, it is not enough ti simply have an Objective – nor even to feel a tepid desire for something. You must visualize the Objective as constantly being fulfilled. For example, if your Objective is ‘I want to escape from this room,’ then you must see yourself escaping, perhaps in many different ways – through the door, through the window, etc. It is the vision of the Objective being fulfilled that creates the impulse for a strong desire. This is what will bring your role to life.”” (162)
“Chekhov consistently encouraged me to discover the differences between the character’s personality and my own. “it is the differences which the actor must portray, that is what makes the performance artistic and interesting,” he said. “The similarities will be there by themselves!”” (162)
“Don’t try to mentally justify it. Just do it.” (163)
SHORTCUTS FOR PREPARATION AT HOME (167-168)
Read the script silently as many times as possible
Describe the plot of the script to a friend
“Baptize” the emotional sections
Make a list of your character’s physical activities
 
SHORTCUTS FOR PREPARATION ON THE SET (169-170)
Make friends with the set
Make friends with the camera
Make friends with the audience
“Read the script silently as many times as possible.
Resist the temptation to say your lines aloud for as long as you can. Do not try to analyze or even consciously think about the script or the part. This allows your creative unconscious the greatest possible freedom in bringing forth a truly original interpretation of the role.” (167)
““Baptize” the emotional sections.
This means to find successive sections in your script and name each one according ot its principal emotion, feeling, or sensations, so that from the emotional point of view each section will differ form the next ones.” (167)
“Make a list of your character’s physical activities.
Include those that are given in the script and those that you may wish to invent for this part.” (168)
“Chekhov believed that it was important for actors to be aware of how much they really need and love their audiences. He said that when actors are not conscious of this love, or are ashamed of it, they are in danger of becoming jaded and patronizing toward the audience.” (170)
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“Show Your Work” Quotes

I recently read “Show Your Work! 10 Ways To Share Your Creativity And Get Discovered” by Austin Kleon. Below are the quotes I found most interesting. If you like the quotes, please buy the full book here.

Show Your Work Cover“The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.” (19)

“Artists love to trot out the tired line, “My work speaks for itself,” but the truth is, our work doesn’t speak for itself. Human beings want to know where things came from, how they were made, and who made them. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work effects how they value it.” (93)

“Author John Gardner said the basic plot of nearly all stories is this: “A character wants something, goes after it despite opposition (perhaps including his own doubts), and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw.” I like Gardner’s plot formula because it’s also the shape of most creative work: You get a great idea, you go through the hard work of executing the idea, and then you release the idea out into the world, coming to a win, lose, or draw. Sometimes the idea succeeds, sometimes it fails, and more often than not, it does nothing at all.” (99)

“Every client presentation, every personal essay, every cover letter, every fund-raising request – they’re all pitches. They’re stories with the endings chopped off. A good pitch is set up in three acts: The first act is the past, the second act is the present, and the third is the future. The first act is where you’ve been – what you want, how you came to want it, and what you’ve done so far to get it. The second act is where you are now in your work and how you’ve worked hard and used up most of your resources. The third act is where you’re going, and how exactly the person you’re pitching can help you get there. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, this story shape effectively turns your listener into the hero who gets to decide how it ends.” (101)

“George Orwell wrote: “Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.”” (108)

“In their book, Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson encourage businesses to emulate chefs by outteaching their competition. “What do you do? What are your ‘recipes’? What’s your ‘cookbook’? What can you tell the world about how you operate that’s informative, educational, and promotional?” They encourage businesses to figure out the equivalent of their own cooking show.” (117)

“Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work.” (119)

“This story shows what happens when a musician interacts with his fans on the level of a fan himself.” (127)

“Steve Albini says, “being good at things is the only thing that earns you clout or connections.” (131)

“Once a good knuckleball is thrown, it’s equally unpredictable to the batter, the catcher, and the pitcher who threw it. (Sounds a lot like the creative process, huh?) (139)

“Colin Marshall says: “If you spend your life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people.”” (152)

“You have to remember that your work is something you do, not who you are. This is especially hard for artists to accept, as so much of what they do is personal.” (152)

“Comments outnumber ideas.” (156)

“Cartoonist Natalie Dee says: “There’s never a space under paintings in a gallery where someone writes their opinion.” (157)

“Artist Ben Shan says: “An amateur is an artist who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to paint.” (161)

“Walt Disney: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”” (172)

“Try new things. If an opportunity comes along that will allow you to do more of the kind of work you want to do, say Yes. If an opportunity comes along that would mean more money, but less of the kind of work you want o do, say No.” (174)

“The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough.” (183)

“Isak Dinesen wrote, “You can’t count on success; you can only leave open the possibility for it, and be ready to jump on and take the ride when it comes for you.”” (185)

“A successful or failed project is no guarantee of another success or failure. Whether you’ve just won big or lost big, you still have to face the question “What’s next?”” (187)

“You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.” (197)

“Alain de Botton wrote, “Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.”” (197)

“First, be useful. Then necessary.” (206)

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“Art & Fear” Quotes

I recently read Art & Fear: Observations On The Perils (And Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland. Below are the quotes I found most interesting. As always, if you like the quotes, please click here to buy the book.

Screen Shot 2014-03-26 at 2.06.31 PM“Art is rarely made by Mozart-like people – essentially (statistically speaking) there aren’t any people like that.” (i)

“It’s easy to imagine that artists doubted their calling less when working in the service of God than when working in the service of self.” (2)

“We’ll side with Conrad’s view of fatalism: namely, that it is a species of fear – the fear that your fate is in your own hands, but that your hands are weak.” (3)

“Becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.” (3)

“Even talent is rarely distinguishable, over the long run, from perseverance and lots of hard work.” (3)

“It suggests that our flaws and weaknesses, while often obstacles to our getting work done, are a source of strength as well.” (4)

“The viewers’ concerns are not your concerns (although it’s dangerously easy to adopt their attitudes). Their job is whatever it is: to be moved by art, to be entertained by it, to make a killing off it, whatever. Your job is to learn to work on your work.” (5)

“Virtually all artists spend some of their time (and some artists spend virtually all of their time) producing work that no one else much cares about.” (5)

“There’s generally no good reason why others should care about most of any one artist’s work. The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.” (5)

“One of the basic and difficult lessons every artists must learn is that even the failed pieces are essential.” (6)

“Until your ship comes in, the only people who will really care about your work are those who care about you personally. Those close to you know that making the work is essential to your well being.” (6)

“”Artists don’t get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working.” – Stephen DeStaebler” (9)

“Basically, those who continue to make art are those who have learned how to continue – or more precisely, have learned how to not quit.” (9)

“Operating manual for not quitting:
A. Make friends with others who make art, and share your in-progress work with each other frequently
B. Learn to think of [A], rather than the Museum of Modern Art, as the destination of your work. (Look at it this way: If all goes well, MOMA will eventually come to you.)” (12)

“Fears arise when you look back, and they arise when you look ahead.” (14)

“Lesson for the day: vision is always ahead of execution – and it should be.” (15)

“The artwork’s potential is never higher than in that magic moment when the first brushstroke is applied, the first chord struck. But as the piece grows, technique and craft take over, and imagination becomes a less useful tool. A piece grows by becoming a specific.” (15)

“Joan Didion said, “What’s so hard about that first sentence is that you’re stuck with it. Everythign else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you’ve laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone.” (16)

“Art is like beginning a sentence before you know its ending.” (20)

“Tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding.” (21)

“Fears about yourself prevent you from doing your best work, while fears about your reception by others prevent you from doing your own work.” (23)

“But while you may feel you’re just pretending that you’re an artist, there’s no way to pretend you’re making art.” (26)

“Talent may get someone off the starting blocks faster, but without a sense of direction or a goal to strive for, it won’t count for much.” (27)

“The world is filled with people who were given great natural gifts, sometimes conspicuously flashy gifts, yet never produce anything. And when that happens, the world soon ceases to care whether they are talented.” (27)

“Whatever they have is something needed to do their work – it wouldn’t help you in your work even if you had it. Their magic is theirs. You don’t lack it. You don’t need it. It has nothing to do with you.” (34)

“At any given moment the older work is always more attractive, always better understood.” (39)

“Simply courting approval, even that of peers, puts a dangerous amount of power in the hands of the audience. Worse yet, the audience is seldom in a position to grant (or withhold) approval on the one issue that really counts – namely, whether or not you’re making progress in your work. They’re in a good position to comment on how they’re moved (or challenged or entertained) by the finished product, but have little knowledge or interest in your process. Audience comes later. The only pure communication is between you and your work.” (47)

“Naive passion, which promotes work done in ignorance of obstacles, becomes – with courage – informed passion, which promotes work done in full acceptance of those obstacles.” (50)

“Your reach as a viewer is vastly greater than your reach as a maker. The art you can experience may have originated a thousand miles away or a thousand years ago, but the art you can make is irrevocably bound to the times and places of your life.” (52)

“Working within the self-imposed discipline of a particular form eases the prospect of having ot reinvent yourself with each new piece.” (60)

“Fear that you’re not getting your fair share of recognition leads to anger and bitterness. Fear that you’re not as good as a fellow artist leads to depression.” (72)

“The dilemma facing academia is that it must accommodate not only students who are striving to become artists, but also teachers who are struggling to remain artists.” (80)

“An artist who teaches will eventually dwindle away to something much less: a teacher who formerly made art.” (82)

“Most people stop making art when they stop being students.” (85)

“The security of a monthly paycheck mixes poorly with the risk-taking of artistic inquiry.” (88)

“What we really gain from the artmaking of others is courage-by-association. “ (90)

“Writer Henry James once propose three questions you could productively put to an artist’s work: The first two were disarmingly straightforward: What was the artist trying to achieve? Did he/she succeed? The third’s a zinger: Was it worth doing?” (93)

“We do not long remember those artists who followed the rules more diligently than anyone else. We remember those who made the art from which the “rules” inevitably follow.” (95)

“Art made primarily to display technical virtuosity is often beautiful, striking, elegant… and vacant.” (96)

“Compared to other challenges, the ultimate shortcoming of technical problems is not that they’re hard, but that they’re easy.” (96)

“The net result is that the art is less polished – but more innovative – than craft.” (98)

“One real difference between art and craft: with craft, perfection is possible.” (98)

“New work is supposed to replace old work. If it does so by making the old work inadequate, insufficient and incomplete – well, that’s life.” (99)

“Old work tells you what you were paying attention to then; new work comments on the old by point out what you were not previously paying attention to.” (100)

“Most early work, in fact, only hints at the themes and gestures that will – if the potential isn’t squandered – emerge as the artist’s characteristic signature in later, mature work.” (102)

“Style is the natural consequence of habit.” (103)

“Science advances at the rate that technology provides tools of greater precision, while art advances at the pace that evolution provides minds with greater insight – a pace that is, for better or worse, glacially slow.” (104)

“Art is something you do out in the world, or something you do about the world, or even something you do for the world.” (108)

“Viewed over a span of years, changes in one’s art often reveal a curious pattern, swinging irregularly between long periods of quiet refinement, and occasional leaps of runaway change.” (110)

“Over the long run, the people with the interesting answers are those who ask the interesting questions.” (113)

“The only work really worth doing – the only work you can do convincingly – is the work that focuses on the things you care about.” (116)

“Art is hard because you have to keep after it so consistently.” (118)

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“The Art Of The Pitch” Quotes

I recently read “The Art Of The Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills That Win Business” by Peter Coughter. Below are the quotes I found most interesting. As always, if you like the quotes, please buy the book here.

Art of The Pitch“Being competitive wasn’t enough. We had to be compelling.” (3)

“We are the gift. We are giving ourselves to our audience. We’re giving them the product of our thoughts, efforts, and personality. We’re giving them who we are. We’re telling them our truth. That’s our gift to them.” (8)

“The trick is to understand that you are simply talking with your audience, sharing your thoughts. You’re not arguing. You’re not selling. You’re having a conversation. You’re giving them a gift.” (8)

“Good enough isn’t good enough. Because good enough will leave you in the middle of the pack.” (11)

“Take some time and figure out how to sell it. Apply the same creativity and energy that went into creating the work to selling the work. Do an ad for your ads.” (14)

“In fact, since we’re trying for a conversational style, there probably SHOULD be some mistakes.” (17)

“What audiences want is authenticity. They don’t want a game show host.” (17)

“Find your own style and exploit it. Work it. Develop it. Find YOUR voice. Don’t try to sound like anyone else.” (17)

“Great presenters tell stories. We all love stories. Stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end. Stories that grab our attention right away and hold it all the way to the end.” (17)

“Get yourself and how you feel about the subject into your presentations. This is what audiences can relate to and, therefore, relate to you.” (18)

“Think of every presentation as a story and concentrate on creating a real attention-getting opening and a powerful close.” (18)

“Nothing will solve as many problems as knowing your stuff.” (19)

“Because she knows her stuff so well, the presenter is free to concentrate on the reason she’s there – the audience.” (19)

“If you’re counting on your memory to conjure up every single word you memorized, you are doomed.” (19)

“Great presenters know that, like advertising, presenting is the art of seduction, not debate. They realize that people make decisions emotionally. They will rationalize decisions based on all the facts and figures, using the objective to help them justify the decisions they made subjectively.” (22)

“I’m not saying you must give them what they like. Not at all. I’m saying that you must know what they like in order to give them what they need.” (23)

“I’ve learned that our nervousness is never transmitted to the audience in the same proportion that we feel it.” (23)

“Remember, the appearance of spontaneity is the product of preparation.” (24)

“We practiced so much, it because natural. An ironic truth,” says Peter Ignazi.” (24)

“You have a symbiotic relationship with the audience. Without them, there’s nothing for you to do. Without you, they have no reason for being there. So you’re dependent upon one another to pull this thing off.” (27)

“This is where elegance lies. In the removal of everything that is superfluous.” (30)

“Start at the end and figure out exactly what it is that you want to accomplish… What do we want, and what do we have to do to get it? Then work your way to the begining.” (35)

“Think of the audience as your partner, not as an adversary. Think of them as your “other half.” They respond to your deft lead. You’re setting the rhythm and tempo of the “music.” You’re in complete control, but you’re exercising this control effortlessly, and they are responding to your confidence and power. And having a great time.” (37)

“Remember that even when you’re supposed to be talking about yourself, you should be talking about the client [audience].” (44)

“Our audience decides an awful lot of what they think about us and what we’re saying based upon our attitude.” (52)

“Dr. Joel Whalens writes, ‘Your attitude is the power that drives the most important and powerful symbols you communicate. To be a great oral communicator, you must first manage your attitude. It’s the way you say your words that makes you persuasive.’” (54)

“If you want to win, if you want to get what you want, you must make your audience respond emotionally.” (57)

“There is a very high correlation between creative reputation and ability to present.” (61)

“Who you really are is far more interesting than who you think they want to believe you are.” (70)

“The essence of selling is emotion. Virtually nothing is sold on the rational, analytical level.” (74)

“The secret to selling great work is to sell the idea of the work before you sell the work.” (76)

“He eliminated the obvious solution and took the audience by the hand, leading them to a point where the only possible solution had to be his. Sell the idea of the work, then sell the work.” (78)

“Whatever the subject matter, there is a way to make it meaningful and relevant to our audience. There is a way to capture our audience’s imagination, and persuade them to our point of view. That way is through the use of emotion.” (80)

“Don’t memorize. Know the material. Make it yours.” (92)

“We are drawn to confidence. We follow confident people. But turn the confidence dial up a little too high, and the audience is turned off.” (95)

“Never appear to be anything but thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is one of the most important attributes we can possess.” (101)

“If you appear to be young, people may assume that you are inexperienced, less than savvy, and not really in any position to be telling folks what to do. But all of that can be overcome if you appear to be thoughtful.” (101)

“I’m talking about the quality that certain people seem to have that communicates intelligence. Wisdom. Knowing your stuff. It’s not necessary to do a lot of talking in a meeting or presentation to seem thoughtful. It is only necessary that the things you say are smart. Insightful. Cogent. Even brave.” (102)

“If you’re really good at it, your ideas will be so thoughtful, and so well expressed, that they can’t be refuted.” (102)

“No one knows if one idea is better than another if it isn’t presented in such a way that it is clear to the audience that the idea is better.” (104)

“While it’s true that the audience will likely remember less than 10 percent of what you say orally, you must give them exciting and powerful words to hang onto. If they only remember a few, make them great.” (107)

“When we are selling our ideas, the audience must first buy us. And as we said earlier, if we want them to buy “us,” we have to show them who “us” really is. Not some caricature of “us,” but the genuine article.” (107)

“We weren’t selling, we were just having a conversation and being ourselves. Which is, of course, the best way to sell.” (119)

“Have a point of view. Have something to say. Say it in such a way that I get excited.” (124)

“You have to develop your own lexicon. Whether it’s your agency talking, or just you, I suggest that you speak in your own language.” (125)

“Until your business decides to get serious about who it is, and why it is, and what it believes in and stands for, and finally, how it expresses itself, you will continue to struggle in the middle of that great undifferentiated pack of sameness.” (126)

“If you aren’t clear on just who and what your organization is, why should anyone care what you think about a specific issue?” (129)

“It just has to be the best story. The story that is most enjoyable to hear. The story that entertains. The story that allows you to show just how passionate you are about the subject. And maybe most importantly, the story that you believe.” (136)

“A good meeting is not the goal. Great work is. Eyes on the prize.” – Mark Fenske (149)

“This is about persuasion, and someone who appears to be regurgitating memorized material is not persuasive.” (156)

“The appearance of spontaneity is the product of rehearsal.” (171)

“From time to time, change the volume of your voice.” (191)

“If you do what the client, or new business prospect expects you to do – they will be disappointed.” (215)

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