Improvisation Quotes · Page 6

“Writing structure is logical. Writing method at its best is instinctive. That way you get the benefits of both styles - improvisation…

— Stewart Stafford

Improv is so freeing because there are no bounds; there's no safety net. You just say something and get an instant response.

— Nicole Byer

Comedy is far more difficult, as it involves improvisation and impromptu acting, and as an actor, that came as a welcome break…

— Divyanka Tripathi

It's just a whole different vibe with improv. As an actor I just kind of exercise within my environment and adjust depending…

— Katy Mixon

“Can't you improvise? You know, make some loud pounding noises or cause the outer walls to bleed?”

— Jeaniene Frost

Improv is really fun but it's a lot harder to show people your work if they don't come to your show. Something…

— Patti Harrison

In life most of us are highly skilled at suppressing action. Bad improvisers block action often with a high degree of skill.…

— Keith Johnstone

“Lying is manipulation. I prefer to call what I did ‘improvisation in times of desperation.”

— Katie Kacvinsky

For me anyway, until I was exposed to doing improvisation and walking onto a stage without any script, I would have never…

— Cheryl Hines

When you do improv, you're everything. You're a performer, writer, and director, because you're moving the scene in the direction you want…

— Rob Reiner

I think improvisation is a technique and a tool. I think that even the best of them fail most of the time,…

— Bernard Sahlins

Improvisation is risky. I like that. Another practical reason for that is that you have to go out and play every day…

— Jamie Lidell

The hardest part about improv is getting the audience to relax and enjoy themselves, because most improv is not very good, and…

— Scott Adsit

And in Improvisation there is one hard and fast rule, and that rule is known as "Yes And." The term YES AND:…

— Maya Rudolph

I can put together a pretty decent meal from whatever happens to be in the refrigerator and the pantry. I like the…

— Chang-Rae Lee

I think the improv also helps with the imagination of dealing this person across from me who's not physically there. When you…

— Tatiana Maslany

Jazz is the music of the body. The breath comes through brass. It is the body's breath, and the strings' wails and…

— Anais Nin

In 1968 I ran into Steve Lacy on the street in Rome. I took out my pocket tape recorder and asked him…

— Frederic Rzewski

I'm no longer beholden to the sacredness of the recorded song as some kind of ultimate standard by which every performance of…

— Sufjan Stevens

When we got to the part where we had to improvise an argument in a poetic language, I got cold feet. "I…

— Patti Smith

This is a very different show than any I've worked on before. We work sixty-hour weeks. I work 6AM to 6PM because…

— Rainn Wilson

“Sholem [a painter] was saying that freedom, for him, is having the technical facility to be able to execute whatever he wants,…

— Sheila Heti

Improv is more than just spitting out a bunch of funny stuff that's unrelated to the material. You have to stay in…

— Wendi McLendon-Covey

Within a capitalist corporation, someone says, "Lend me a wrench," and someone asks, "Yeah, what do I get?" You assume that the…

— David Graeber

I like films that are well-written and concise and with not a lot of room for improvisation.

— Patrice Leconte

if you don't think that all life is improvisation, then you haven't been paying attention. Life is what happens to you while…

— Joan Rivers

As you know from reading many of these Negro writers, we don't deal too much with the discussion of democracy and what…

— Stanley Crouch

The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible…

— Carlos Gavito

I'm not a huge fan of improv theater or improv sports or whatever, because it still just looks like a tool. It…

— John Michael Higgins

Most of my comedy writing happens through improvisation on stage; doing it in the moment.

— Marc Maron

I consider myself a jazz singer. I think I stick to the roots of improvisation, singing in front of the beat, behind…

— Gregory Porter

“The more you practice thinking on your feet and the more you prepare for future scenarios, the better you get at improvising…

— Roger Spitz

To write a book about improvisation is partly a contradiction in terms. Improvisation is spontaneous. It's in the moment.

— Sally Schneider

Improv. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but when it does, it's like open-field running.

— Robin Williams

Improvisation can be either a last resort or an established way of evoking creativity.

— Mary Catherine Bateson

Jazz Improvisation means that practice is not as straightforward as it would be when you simply have a score to play.

— Ahmad Jamal

I think for anyone - male or female - in improv, the biggest thing to get over is the fear. I think…

— Anonymous

Even if the script's well written there's something about the life of an improvisation that resonates better than a written word, sometimes.

— John Travolta

The lifelong goal of an improviser is to listen to what the other person is saying, taking it in, and responding.

— Ali Farahnakian

I loved the idea [of improvisation], but I'd never taken any classes or practiced it.

— Lily Collins