The proverbial German phenomenon of the verb-at-the-end about which droll tales of absentminded professors who would begin a sentence, ramble on for an entire lecture, and then finish up by rattling off a string of verbs by which their audience, for whom the stack had long since lost its coherence, would be totally nonplussed, are told, is an excellent example of linguistic recursion.
—Douglas R. Hofstadter (b.1945) American Cognitive Scientist, Author
The audience is the best judge of anything. They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags – they’re gonna cough.
—Barbra Streisand (b.1942) American Musician, Actor, Songwriter
My play was a complete success. The audience was a failure.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Economics is a subject profoundly conducive to cliche, resonant with boredom. On few topics is an American audience so practiced in turning off its ears and minds. And none can say that the response is ill advised.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
I try to bring the audience’s own drama – tears and laughter they know about – to them.
—Judy Garland (1922–69) American Actress, Singer
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
—Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British-born American Film Director, Film Producer
When a subject is highly controversial… one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one’s audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Instinct taught me 20 years ago to pace a song or a concert performance. That translates into pacing a story, pleasing a reading audience.
—Jimmy Buffett (1946–2023) American Singer, Songwriter, Tropical Rock Musician
The director is simply the audience. So the terrible burden of the director is to take the place of that yawning vacuum, to be the audience and to select from what happens during the day which movement shall be a disaster and which a gala night. His job is to preside over accidents.
—Orson Welles (1915–85) American Film Director, Actor
A solitude is the audience-chamber of God.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
If there are twelve clowns in a ring, you can jump in the middle and start reciting Shakespeare, but to the audience, you’ll just be the thirteenth clown.
—Adam Walinsky (1937–2023) American Lawyer, Speechwriter
The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn’t stand the sight of the audience.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer
Not content to have the audience in the palm of his hand, he goes one further and clinches his fist.
—Kenneth Tynan (1927–80) English Theatre Critic, Writer
Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
There are wonderful things in real jazz, the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.
—Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French Painter, Sculptor, Lithographer
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o’clock in the morning; and if it is, it will generally be repeated at a more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience.
—Moss Hart (1904–61) American Dramatist, Director
A low trick I hate to stoop to is tying and untying my shoelaces. It seems to fascinate audiences probably because so many women in the audience have their shoes off, or wish they did.
—Edward Everett Horton (1886–1970) American Character Actor
There are three things to aim at in public speaking; first to get into your subject, then to get your subject into yourself, and lastly, to get your subject into your hearers.
—Alexander Gregg (1819–93) American Episcopal Bishop
It is extremely arrogant and very foolish to think that you can ever outwit your audience.
—Twyla Tharp (b.1941) American Choreographer, Dancer
And who knows? Somewhere out there in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president’s spouse. I wish him well!
—Barbara Bush (1925–2018) American First Lady
The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
I have no idea what the audience makes of me.
—Keith Richards (b.1943) British Musician, Songwriter, Rolling Stones Guitarist
Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you’ve got an audience.
—Diogenes Laertius (f.3rd Century CE) Biographer of the Greek Philosophers
Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.
—Laurence Olivier (1907–89) English Actor, Producer, Director
God is a comic, playing to an audience that’s afraid to laugh.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Every crowd has a silver lining.
—P. T. Barnum (1810–91) American Businessperson, Entertainer
When [actors] are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor.
—Cedric Hardwicke (1893–1964) English Stage, Film Actor
A politician’s words reveal less about what he thinks about his subject than what he thinks about his audience.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Author, Commentator
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