Performance Quotes

“Don't mistake activity with achievement.”
― John Wooden

“I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”
― Martha Graham

“I'm just a musical prostitute, my dear.”
― Freddie Mercury

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”
― Twyla Tharp

“The world is a show and the show is a performance of the wealthy, the beautiful and the fortunate. The invulnerable, the matchless and the exclusive live a life like dazzling fish in a scintillating seascape behind glass. Everybody may admire them, but nobody can touch them. ( “Keeping up with the Joneses” )”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Conversation often becomes mere verbal performance and oral horseplay rather than fair-minded communication. (“Juicy rumours “)”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Coaching 101: First you build the team, and then you build the torture chamber for underperformers.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book Has No Title

“If you're going to do something, strive to do it better than anyone else. Do it all the way. If you're going to half-ass it, why bother?”
― Ashly Lorenzana

“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment...For imagination sets the goal ‘picture’ which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of ‘will,’ as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.”
― Maxwell Maltz, The New Psycho-Cybernetics: The Original Science of Self-Improvement and Success That Has Changed the Lives of 30 Million People

“The only performance that makes it, that makes it all the way is the one that achieves madness.”
― Mick Jagger

“And suddenly solitude fell across his heart like a dusty reflection. He closed his eyes. The dark doors within him opened and he entered. The next performance in the theater of Grenouille's soul was beginning.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“The elegance under pressure is the result of fearlessness.”
― Ashish Patel

“The light. The light is so bright that all that remains is you and the darkness. You can feel the audience breathing. It's like holding a gun or standing on a precipice and knowing you must jump. It feels slow and fast. It's like dying and being born and fucking and crying. It's like falling in love and being utterly alone with God; you taste your own mouth and feel your own skin and I knew I was alive and I knew who I was and that that wasn't who I'd been up till then. I'd been so far away but I knew I was home.”
― Russell Brand, My Booky Wook

“Find your authentic voice, become vulnerable, and then put yourself out there.”
― Meredith Brooks

“Street performances?"

"A little singing. A little martial arts. Some interpretive dance."

"Wow."

"I know! The Portuguese have taste.”
― Nico and Gleeson Hedge

“This was our last night. We only had one curtain call, Bree. And I thought they were going to give us a standing ovation, but no-o-o-. Do you know why half the audience stood up?"
"To get a head start on the traffic," Bree said.
"To get a head start on the traffic," Antonia agreed in indignation. "I mean, here we are, dancing and singing our little guts out, and all those folks want to do is get to bed early. I ask you, whatever happened to common courtesy? Whatever happened to decent manners? Doesn't anyone care about craft anymore? And on top of that, it's not even nice.”
― Mary Stanton, Defending Angels

“I love the performance of a craft, whether it is modest or mean-spirited, yet I walk away when discussions of it begin - as if one should ask a gravedigger what brand of shovel he uses or whether he prefers to work at noon or in moonlight. I am interested only in the care taken, and those secret rehearsals behind it. Even if I do not understand fully what is taking place. ”
― Michael Ondaatje, Divisadero

“You're afraid of the audience, aren't you?"
"Yes, but it's not stagefright. It's that I'm there as the geek. They like to watch me eat my shit. But it pays the light bill and takes me to the racetrack. I don't have any excuses about why I do it.”
― Charles Bukowski, Women

“The place trembled with sound. I didn't need to do anything. They would do it all. But you had to be careful. Drunk as they were they could immediately detect any false gesture, any false word. You could never underestimate an audience. They had paid to get in; they had paid for drinks; they intended to get something and if you didn't give it to them they'd run you right into the ocean.”
― Charles Bukowski, Women

“So …” Jack clears his throat. “We …”
Is Jack Coombs at a loss for words? I guess we don’t have to worry about the performance since the world is clearly going to end.”
― Elizabeth Eulberg, Take a Bow

“On the right side-panel of the verbose and somewhat tautological box of Cheerios, it is written,

If you are not satisfied with the quality and/or performance of the Cheerios in this box, send name, address, and reason for dissatisfaction—along with entire boxtop and price paid—to: General Mills, Inc., Box 200-A, Minneapolis, Minn., 55460. Your purchase price will be returned.

It isn’t enough that there is a defensive tone to those words, a slant of doubt, an unappetizing broach of the subject of money, but they leave the reader puzzling over exactly what might be meant by the “performance” of the Cheerios.

Could the Cheerios be in bad voice? Might not they handle well on curves? Do they ejaculate too quickly? Has age affected their timing or are they merely in a mid-season slump? Afflicted with nervous exhaustion or broken hearts, are the Cheerios smiling bravely, insisting that the show must go on?”
― Tom Robbins, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

“In musical performances one can sense that the person on stage is having a good time even if they're singing a song about breaking up or being in a bad way. For an actor this would be anathema, it would destroy the illusion, but with singing one can have it both ways. As a singer, you can be transparent and reveal yourself on stage, in that moment, and at the same time be the person whose story is being told in the song. Not too many kinds of performance allow that.”
― David Byrne, How Music Works

“The performance was exotic. It was short. And it wasn't much more dreadful than the Chinese opera that had been performed last year.
"Bravo!" Ned called. He applauded madly. Thankfully, everyone joined in.
Blakely bowed, rather stiffly, and picked his way through the rows toward his seat. He didn't even make eye contact with Ned, didn't acknowledge that Ned had just saved him.
Ha, Just because Blakely had no humility didn't mean Ned couldn't try to humiliate him further.
"Encore!" Ned shouted.
Blakely fixed Ned with a look that promised eventual dismemberment. Luckily for the future attachment of Ned's limbs, nobody else took up the cry.”
― Courtney Milan, Proof by Seduction

“As the manager sits before a performance, as the critics wait like hungry dogs to rip apart the performance, they all become entwined in the theatrics of it all.”
― Isabella Kruger, Afterlife

“But remember that in order to symbolize everything to everyone, you will be both loved and hated.”
― Bonnie Huie, Four Essays

“On the Rolling Stones - You will walk out of the Amphitheatre after watching the Stones perform and suddenly the Chicago stockyards smell clean and good by comparison.”
― Tom Fitzpatrick

“Sex in the twenties is like a helicopter raring to take off vertically, but twenty years later, it is like a vintage plane roaring and racing to a reluctant take off!”
― Rajuda

“Apathy's just a front. People offer it when there's something stronger hiding underneath. You have to work harder to tap into it, but then your performance has even more power.”
― Guy Mankowski, How I Left the National Grid: A post-punk novel

“The First Law: Performance drives success,
but when performance can’t be measured,
networks drive success.”
― Albert-László Barabási, The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success

“I am mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it's the only place where I'm happy.”
― Bob Dylan