Top 100 Quotes About Improvise
#1. To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.
Isaac Asimov
#2. Spielberg knows his craft so well, he can also improvise, and that is a lot of fun.
Max Von Sydow
#3. Speak to me ... be eloquent, be brilliant for me. Improvise! Rhapsodize! ... I ask for cream and you give me milk and water ... Please gather your dreams together into words. - Roxanne, Cyrano de Bergerac
Edmond Rostand
#4. For years, a motto often repeated in the Canadian Armed Forces was "Improvise. Adapt. Overcome." This was a fancy way of saying we should make do with whatever tools we were given." p. 119
Jody Mitic
#5. Preparing to improvise is at a level commensurate with mastering the structure in a European classical piece. Another way to define improvisation is spontaneous melody. In order to improvise, a player first needs to have memorized and analyzed the harmonic structure of so many pieces.
Jimmy Heath
#6. But I also think that the more you reason collectively about what the project should be at the beginning of the process, the more you can improvise later.
Walter Salles
#7. I have a great ability to improvise verbally, and I am very funny on a dime.
Kate Braverman
#8. If I do a bit on stage, I prepare too much. Those bits are all really, really carefully written, and overwritten, and researched. I really don't feel like I can wing it. So I write it out word for word, and when I'm onstage I'll improvise around it.
Andy Daly
#11. I keep a guitar around while writing and will improvise music. I do this for several reasons, such as that it's fun, and sometimes it helps me with the meter.
Jack Prelutsky
#12. Only he who is well prepared has any opportunity to improvise.
Ingmar Bergman
#13. As I got more confident, I was able to let actors improvise, and do long takes. It's 10%, 5% you learn and experience. The rest you just have or you don't have.
Woody Allen
#14. He's a very funny and very nice man. When you read the script, you want to stick with it. But when you're with Eddie Murphy you've got to improvise. He's always making jokes and making me crack up when the camera's on.
Raven-Symone
#15. The importance is getting to something truthful and in that moment can only be in that moment. I don't like to use the word "improvise," but it's a continual writing of the film.
Abdellatif Kechiche
#16. She realises that if she is to save the show she is going to have to improvise a rousing speech, one of the many Henry V moments that make up her working life.
David Nicholls
#17. Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.
Dave Brubeck
#18. Sometimes we had to improvise. I hate to improvise because I felt like I couldn't find words.
Berenice Bejo
#19. It's hard to go out in front of people with an acoustic guitar and improvise for 30 or 40 minutes, but I had a compulsion to do it. I just had to in a way that I can't really explain.
Bill Orcutt
#20. With 'True Grit,' the language was very specific, as is Shakespeare. You couldn't really improvise, nor would you really ever have to. I never felt the need to. It was all so beautifully written, and it was all right there.
Hailee Steinfeld
#21. Sometimes the best thing you could do is a real bad film ... you could improvise all over the place and probably only improve the script.
Bruce Glover
#22. I've been called a funny person, for a long time. I don't know that I know anything about comedic acting. I'm not a good improver, which is what a lot of comedic actors are really good at. I have failed miserably when I've been asked to improvise.
John Cho
#23. When we first started playing we did a lot of rehearsing. We used to write out everything. In fact, that's the way everybody rehearses: we play the tunes and improvise.
Charlie Haden
#24. There are times when the writers ask us to improvise. Sometimes the animators are inspired by what you do, and sometimes you are inspired by what the animators do.
Dan Castellaneta
#25. I have a house, I try to spend as little time in it as possible. Not always easy on the mind and body, but it's how I got myself to 80-plus countries. This kind of routine forces one to reinvent and improvise. The older I get, the more important this is to me.
Henry Rollins
#26. Frankly, as much as I love to improvise, it hasn't been difficult to stick to the script on 'Mad Men.' The writing is so precise, and the story so carefully crafted, that I don't think there's room - or need - for ad libbing. I could never come up with dialogue as lovely as these writers do, anyway.
Rich Sommer
#27. Who the hell do you think you're, Kiddo?
I don't do thinking, Sir. I simply improvise.
Toba Beta
#28. But I really like hosting, I think it's a strength of mine. It allows me to improvise, and I love the spontaneity of that, and I think I'm funny behind the desk when interviewing someone.
Garry Shandling
#29. Acting is like music and you improvise. It's like jazz, there's no rhyme or reason to it. It's not a plan. You practice to music and you just play it.
Denzel Washington
#30. All our differences and similarities are vast and rich - their interplay is the fabric of all relating. It's hard to invent rules out of such complexity; we improvise as we learn about each other.
Carol A. Queen
#31. I love to improvise, but I always thought "Man, it's like the final frontier for improvisational actors, to really go for something emotional, something that's not just chasing the laugh."
John C. Reilly
#32. When you listen to someone improvise, the notes that are played are only half the story.
Hubert Laws
#33. Being able to improvise is the basis for creating all characters and situations, for everything to do with performing, really. And it's good therapy as well.
Chris Kattan
#34. I really learned how to improvise at the Groundlings.It's something I've always loved to do. For some reason it feels more honest at times.
Jillian Bell
#35. I improvise whenever I feel it's important, or whenever I think that something's there. It's nice to have a script that's so well-written that I don't have to improvise. I mean, I used to have to re-write whole movies; this is kind of nice.
Bill Murray
#36. My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.
Paul Simon
#37. Improvise when obstacles present themselves. Happy accidents are magic! Have an open mind.
Matthew Bonifacio
#38. To me, if people really want to improvise, get into classes and learn.
Jim Rash
#39. Every time you build a golf course, it's not a golf course when you get there. You have to improvise.
Pete Dye
#40. Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become stageworthy.
Viola Spolin
#41. We want to connect all these musical worlds together. We just improvise; we know straight away if its going to work or not. They're not covers - I hate the word cover. We do a transcription: mix it up, put our own spin on it. I think people will be surprised how powerful our show is.
Luka Sulic
#43. I would love to do more acting; I really would love to do it, particularly character acting. I'm a character type of actor; I love situations where I've got a bit of room to improvise on the character.
Sharlto Copley
#44. Confident people, who understand comedy, improvise so much better than people who are scared. You can't be scared to improvise. You have to know your character, and then you have to let go.
Marlon Wayans
#45. What matters most to me? To work with my model until I have it enough in me to be able to improvise, to let my hand run free ...
Henri Matisse
#46. In my case, I am improvising with existing sound files. I use an MSP patch that a friend of mine made, and you have to improvise when you use this patch. I don't use a guitar in performance anymore.
Christian Fennesz
#47. When I graduated from college, I moved to New York and started doing improv because I read all about the early 'Saturday Night Live' guys having come through Second City and learning how to improvise, so I wanted to get immediately into that.
Andy Daly
#48. When people know the desired destination, they're free to improvise, as needed, in arriving there.
Chip Heath
#49. You can't improvise if you are tense. Or thinking too much. You have to really let it go.
Joy Bryant
#50. I wrote my book 'The Amorous Busboy Of Decatur Avenue' completely like a writer does, writing it down, re-writing everything. But in my stand-up, I improvise initially, never questioning it too closely.
Robert Klein
#51. You don't improvise with a Cameron Crowe script.
Orlando Bloom
#52. The great majority of people are calm, resourceful, altruistic or even beyond altruistic, as they risk themselves for others. We improvise the conditions of survival beautifully.
Rebecca Solnit
#53. So what's the plan?" Ben asked.
"Go inside. Look around. Improvise."
"Brilliant." Hi stroked his chin. "Quick question: Is having no plan the same as having a terrible plan, or are those different categories?
Kathy Reichs
#54. Basketball isn't a game; It's an art form. You master the fundamentals so you can forget 'em, so you can improvise and just concentrate on what really matters: getting buckets.
Kyrie Irving
#55. The tide has changed. You have to be able to improvise in today's NFL.
Steve McNair
#56. A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting.
Charlie Trotter
#57. Disruptors challenge assumptions. They shake the status quo. They are curious and creative. They adapt and improvise. They push the boundaries and shatter conventional wisdom. They'd rather forge new ground than blindly salute the flag of the past.
Josh Linkner
#58. top-down chains of command are not particularly efficient: they tend to promote stupidity among those on top and resentful foot-dragging among those on the bottom. The greater the need to improvise, the more democratic the cooperation tends to become.
David Graeber
#59. Improvise. Write your own damn story.
Eric Lange
#60. We always feel pretty creative as far as writing songs. We write them together; we just get in a room, or on occasion in Flea's garage. We just sort of improvise, like jazz musicians.
Chad Smith
#62. I have great faith in the actors. When they improvise, it always sounds better than the stuff I write in my bedroom. When they improvise, they make it sound alive.
Woody Allen
#63. Most things I get hired on, I get hired because I improvise something funny, or they just think I look weird.
T. J. Miller
#64. Wasted tries, The many whys, Is it the soul of Compromise?
Lows and highs, Believing in lies, In life we have to improvise.
Frustration and cries, The last leg of sighs, You are the dreamer in disguise!
To the guilt say goodbyes, Open your eyes, Your soul - I do so recognize.
Julieanne O'Connor
#65. I think you never want to have to go into the scene having to improvise; you want to make sure its working on the page. But I do like to have the ability to try stuff just in the moment, to give it some sort of spontaneity.
Ben Stiller
#66. You would never hear any song played twice in the same way. The words were retained, but within a certain frame there was great latitude, and the musician could improvise to his heart's content; and the more the variations and combinations, the greater the musician.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
#67. My grandfather and my father disagreed about music, not least of all because my dad wanted to improvise. It wasn't just that he wanted to play different music; it was just that he came off the dots.
Elvis Costello
#68. Acting is constricted because you have the lines. But I improvise with it and what I learn on the set. I improvise rhythms and just changes.
Anthony Hopkins
#69. Life is a lot like jazz - it's best when you improvise.
George Gershwin
#70. I'm always doing what I can to look for and just feel out funny things that are happening in the scene and improvise off of them.
Thomas Lennon
#71. I also think if you're an actor and you can improvise, when you go on an audition and you can improvise you're just a genius. If you can, you know, take a Tide commercial and you can just say one funny line that's not in the commercial they think you're a genius.
Amy Poehler
#72. The mind itself is an art object ... The mind is a blue guitar on which we improvise the song of the world.
Annie Dillard
#73. I grew up in the funk, rock and roll, blues and r&b tradition, and I came to this thing we call jazz later. And I came to improvise music from the standpoint of jazz; I was improvising, but within these other genres of music.
Hamid Drake
#74. I may film scenes I had no intention of filming; things suggest themselves on location, and we improvise. I try not to think about it too much. Then, in the cutting room, I take the film and start to put it together, and only then do I begin to get an idea of what it is about.
Michelangelo Antonioni
#75. Most people learn to improvise on their own, listening to records, endless hours of noodling on their instrument in the bedroom with all their spare time. That's traditionally how people learn.
Gary Burton
#76. To fight adversity, to improvise, to solve problems, and to save the coup, I had gathered all my senses into unusual configurations, which made me grow wild and enhanced my perceptions.
Philippe Petit
#77. You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.
Denzel Washington
#78. For Kitty Gilbert in 'Topsy-Turvy,' I had to get to the point where I could improvise in the style of 1880, which is difficult. The research for that was huge.
Lesley Manville
#79. Improvisation, it is a mystery. You can write a book about it, but by the end no one still knows what it is. When I improvise and I'm in good form, I'm like somebody half sleeping. I even forget there are people in front of me. Great improvisers are like priests; they are thinking only of their god.
Stephane Grappelli
#80. So, for instance, if you came to me, I'd ask, 'Do you want to write? Do you want to improvise? Why do you want to play this instrument? What do you want to do?'
Ornette Coleman
#81. You gotta improvise in life. You gotta improv if the police pull you over.
J. B. Smoove
#82. The 'Being Human' people were really cool and let me improvise. They had such a good working atmosphere. It was a cool set-up and a really good environment to be in.
Craig Roberts
#83. I think of improvising as composing - fo me it's all about playing melodies. When I improvise, there's not a lot of real thinking going on, per se - it's more like riding a wave. and I know how to stand on the board
Robben Ford
#84. My solo music - I get up onstage, I improvise and it's my improvisation. When I get up onstage with Fred Frith and Mike Patton, then we're improvising together. Then it's not my music; it's our music.
John Zorn
#85. We must improvise, and we must experiment, and we must do things that might go wrong, and everything we bring - the people and the equipment - must serve us in that goal.
Flea
#86. I went to theater school, and if I spent time with one school of thought in this whole acting game, it's the Meisner approach of improvise-based acting. This does not mean that you improvise your acting, but that you focus on the other person.
Mackenzie Davis
#87. On 'Scrubs,' I played a very unusual character who pretty much was defined by saying and doing strange things, so it was easy to improvise around that.
Neil Flynn
#88. I'm very open and never write what I'm going to say. Speeches bore everybody else. I have to freestyle. Every time, from one program to another, everything changes and I improvise.
Marjane Satrapi
#90. No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.
Christopher Walken
#91. Once again, I had the sensation that everyone else was working off a fully rehearsed script, and I was being asked to improvise. "I just meant - nothing," I said, hoping for a clue on what my line was supposed to be.
Jeff Lindsay
#92. Liquid architecture. It's like jazz - you improvise, you work together, you play off each other, you make something, they make something. And I think it's a way of - for me, it's a way of trying to understand the city, and what might happen in the city.
Frank Gehry
#93. Every time I improvise I'm aware that I could be ruining what it is that we're doing and we'll just have to do it again.
Seth Rogen
#94. The big difference is the size of the crew and the flexibility of shooting because of the size. I mean, it's crazy. So you can't improvise, you cannot suddenly do something that comes to mind, whereas in a small production you have much more flexibility.
Bille August
#95. I love when people improvise as long as they're great improvisers, what I mean by that is people can improvise within their characters and within the scene.
Scot Armstrong
#96. Stop thinking. Son't hesitate. Act. The mantra has served her tolerably so far. Looking into the future would improvise her if she allowed it.
Stephen Lloyd Jones
#98. See, that's the thing: I'm not one of those actors who thinks, 'God, I've got to improvise and make it my own.' No, my first job as an actor is to take what's written and make it work. And then, if they want me to improvise, I'll do that.
Rachael Harris
#99. So while you're trying to improvise, you're also trying to puppeteer, you're doing everything that you need to do to perform a puppet in our style, for a camera.
Brian Henson
#100. My method of writing is to take the most basic kind of line and improvise on it. After all, I am the child of the culture which created Jazz.
Leon Forrest
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