Singers

"Lots of little old ladies potter in their gardens. For me it is my library. It has every subject about China I can collect, and of course about theatre."

"You are only famous for ten years, unless you’re a superstar. Because another generation comes through and you’re forgotten."

"You can control the audience. You can make the audience so happy one minute, and so sad the next minute. In film, it’s up to the directors to cut it well. Sometimes an actor may not give a very good performance, but the editor does a good job."

"I don’t like to be called “Mrs.” because I am not married, and I only belong to myself. I admire and respect people who have been successfully married for a long time, but I cannot do it. So I decided to never marry again."

"See, a lot of people think freedom means you can do anything you want. That’s not true. The more freedom you have, the more responsibility you have. My life has always been about freedom and independence. And in some ways, acting has too. What is so great about acting is that after 62 years, suddenly the technique is in you already. You don’t have to think about it anymore. Suddenly you’re free."

"I always tell my students that I’m teaching them to be more confident. That’s why you come to acting class. I say, “If you aim at a tall tree, you may hit a bush. If you aim at a bush, you’ll hit that floor.” I find that some actors just don’t try enough. They may not like it when I say that."

"Another problem for minority actors is that we don’t often work with beautiful dialogue. And there were less chances of working with great directors and actors. That’s when you can learn a lot."

"I don’t know how to bargain. Most Chinese are good at it. I am not. I am too lazy. You need to have good arithmetic and I don’t. I hate gambling, which is almost a national sport. And I don’t think I would keep the money."

"I’m tough but my heart is very soft."

"I have lived on my own since 1963. It doesn’t mean I haven’t had a sex life."

"When I have lived enough to a certain age, I will not bring a man to measure to a certain extent or to a certain standard. The most important thing right now is to find someone who understands me."

"I think moviemakers in every country are looking for ideas. It’s interactive. And sometimes we remake a lot of Hollywood films but we don’t buy the rights, we just try to imitate those films."

"I don’t want to become more famous because I don’t have any privacy anymore and I hate that very much. Outside of work I just want to be an ordinary person, not to be recognised, not a monkey on the street when everybody is looking at you."

"I think it’s incredible and I think I had a breakthrough in my acting career. I did something that I had never done before and to me, at least, it was quite successful."

"I have many more choices on the character I can play (in Hong Kong). The role for Asian actors and actresses is very restrictive in Hollywood movies. They already have a lot of great actors and actresses, I have no idea why they need to write scripts for Chinese actors. I will have more space in Asia and I know my culture very well. I know everybody might have his reason for going to Hollywood; you want to be more famous, you want to make more money. You might have your reason, but I can’t find a reason for myself to go to Hollywood."

"I think the biggest shortcoming is the language. I myself used to go abroad to film, so I think not having the language is a very difficult thing because I can't communicate with them. Without language I cannot talk about the acting process. Just like Vietnamese actors, sometimes I don't act according to the script, but I also create more ideas. If I didn't have the language, I would feel like I was inferior to my friends."

"I think as a filmmaker, I just want to make my film shine, be recognized by the audience first. Besides, I also want to call on the Vietnamese audience to support Vietnamese films because they are the ones who decide the survival of the film. If the audience does not love it, the film will not have the opportunity to recover capital or shine on the market. If Vietnamese films are not supported and shined, it will be difficult for producers to produce films anymore, if this situation persists, there will be no more Vietnamese films to watch in the future. Therefore, I also want audiences with Vietnamese spirit to support Vietnamese films."

"For Westerners, those with black hair and brown eyes default to be Chinese. I do not like it at all. I am proud of my country, culture, and people. I am Vietnamese. I am proud of my country, my people. We have a long history in the cinema, so it should be developed. For every character I play in Hollywood, I want to show the pride of my country. I think any actor or actress has their dreams and purposes."

"More and more female actresses are appearing on the big screen in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular, with the same thought that there will be more female leads for the audience. On the contrary, such films encourage and motivate girls to become independent, strong, and successful. That positive cycle gradually changes the society in which we live."

"For me, Hai Phượng reflects the current social reality of the child abduction problem, more than just a commercial movie. Through the process of finding a child, the film portrays the spiritual motherhood, the courage of a mother to be ready to face dangers, even to sacrifice her life to save her child. It is a very humanistic message that I want to dedicate to my final action movie."

"At present I am too busy with my filming schedule I don't have time to pursue my music career. Besides, the Vietnamese music industry is saturated with new comers, the audiences are confused with the music style of these new comers. Many singers have small success but they think they are stars that makes me bored of the of the music business now. I am not sure if i will return to music."

"I grew up in Norway, learned English there. I'm very grateful because that experience made me who I am today. It made me more independent."

"If I want to experience the life of an ordinary person, I cannot do it in Asia."

"I found a way to express myself. The others thought I was playing a character, but actually I was living behind the character. I could release my emotions, and the others didn't know that was me. That's the reason I love acting so much. I wasn't asking for fame or money - it was the natural high I got addicted to."

"I wasn't so happy in my childhood. My parents broke up when I was six. Before, I was a very active, naughty child, but after my father left me I stopped talking. I became very good at hiding my emotions. I felt so ashamed of telling others that I didn't have a father, because that was not common in the 1960s. People didn't break up - even if they didn't love each other - in traditional Chinese families. Not like today."

"Once I'm committed to a role, I will go very deep into it, even when I'm not at work. I'll keep on studying the script, maybe 40 or 50 times. I might call a scriptwriter at three in the morning to say I've thought of something new."

"If I'm not working, I'll go on my boat and have a few drinks. Most of my friends are outside the movie business. It's too much to mix with other celebrities. When I go out I prefer no one talk about movies. I'd rather talk about waterskiing, the sea, beaches, seafood..."

"I had been making dramas for some time and suddenly I wanted to change, I wanted to have new feelings."

"Many times, I finished and asked my scene partner, 'Did you notice just now that one of my eyes was blank? Actually, I was thinking, what's my line?'"

"For me, when I was a kid, I came from a broken family. I don't know how to express my feelings. I don't want to express my feelings in front of others, so I became very isolated. I don't talk too much, and I'm very good at hiding my emotions. And somehow when I get into the training class, when I learn how to act, then I find a way to express my feelings in front of others without being shy. Because you can hide behind someone, and express you feelings. You can do whatever you want, you can cry, but you won't feel shy. And that's the reason why I enjoy acting very much. That's the reason why I've been acting for twenty-something years. I don't do it for fame or for money. That's not important to me. For myself it's a kind of relief that you have to suppress for 13 years in your childhood."

"I believe that even without speaking the same language, we can create unity: we understand each other because we pray. It’s a form of reconciliation of the world across the borders, cultures and languages of different nations. We’re a family and we complement each other."

"In Russian: Бой неравный был. В четырех стенах Н икого друзей. Только смертный страх. Только муж - палач. Только в сердце нож. Только цвет надежд, превращенный в прах... Нет, не надо слез! Траур ни к чему. Распознать врага у себя в дому, П родолжать борьбу, сестры, надо вам, Гибель Турсуной учит вас тому."

"Theatre is a terrific environment to hone your storytelling skills as well as fine tune your performance, both of which I'm very grateful for and that I use in my prep process for this medium [of television], also, when you have a live audience, they are the last member of the cast, if you will. You can rehearse a show as much as you want,a how that night will turn out until your final company member is in the house, and that's the audience."

"I think what I love the most about sci-fi (fandom) or people that are fans of sci-fi is that they are really hooked on the details and the storytelling aspect of everything. I’ve really enjoyed, I love jamming about scenes and the content of what we’re talking about and the themes in the show. And people are genuinely interested in the world that we’ve created and it’s really fun to talk to them about it. It almost feels like we’re talking at work, like I’m talking to another co-worker because they are just as invested and interested in the details and the nuances as we are. And I don’t think that any other kind of genre has that kind of attention to detail. So I think that’s kind of my favorite part of sci-fi fans."

"I think it’s hard to know how your work is affecting people, although it’s easier to tell with the Internet. I used to only get letters, which was great. It’s amazing because, suddenly, I can see people’s reactions. It’s a surprise because you don’t really know if anybody is listening to you. But I also think the Internet is very misleading. Artists can “Google” themselves and it looks like the world is about them when they’re actually just a tiny glitch in the matrix."

"I think when I write for other people it’s much more playful. We laugh much more and it’s like putting on a costume and I’m much more free. I do quite little of it, I tend to write something and go ‘mine’ and I guess also because sometimes I would have to have somebody in mind to write for because I have a funny way of phrasing things and the songs are often quite subtle but they can be very hard to sing and I really love that. I tend to just own things for myself but if I get asked to write I’ll do it!”"

"To be stuck in a contract with people and not be happy will destroy you. It’s about being very, very strong in your convictions of what you’re doing and what you want, and then building a family around that—having people on your team who are working with you, and not against you. I have been really lucky because my music life has been full of people who look out for me and my interests, who are good friends outside of work, and who want the best for me."

"(On Michael Weatherly)"Michael and I clicked immediately. We sort of hated each other immediately, and loved each other immediately. I walked into the audition and he thought, Ohmygod, she’s gonna be so hard to work with. She’s so complicated. And I thought, This guy’s so incredibly unprofessional. During the audition, he grabbed my hair. He would not follow the lines. He totally went off script and started improvising, and this was my final audition with the heads of CBS. I thought, This guy is sabotaging my audition. So immediately I went, Oh, I’m gonna show this guy. I’m gonna show him. So he tried touching me, and I literally like [mimes slapping his hand away]. That relationship was established the moment that we met. Nothing changed, it was just enhanced. And we loved each other as well. We realized we’re so drastically different and so much alike that there was an immediate attraction.""

"I think that the original movie, for anyone who’s a fan of it and fell in love with it, I do think melancholy is an intrinsic part of it. That’s part of the charm of it and the love of it. And so given the fact that [director Louis Letterier] and Lisa and the whole team have set about making this story very much in the spirit of the original, there is an element of melancholy to it and I think that’s part of its charm."

"Make the necessary plans, set goals but understand that the things that really matter, are out of your hands."

"Art is about collecting experiences and expressing them. For me music and photography are similar art forms. I collect experiences, stir them in myself and express it in my own language. Just like my photography, music is my language."

"It has been a joy to share my knowledge but more than anything, I think I have been inspired by the amount of growth many of the participants in such a short time have garnered. And that says many things, one of which is that if we have more and more of stuffs like this, we can push the quality and they type of photography that is coming out of Nigeria forward. I love the fact that this is a workshop for women. I mean this (the project) is a way to have a voice and I am so glad that I have seen people who came here at the beginning with works of a certain kind, now being able to push forward on their own ideas and their own perspective of things. I think that is important and it has been a tremendously incredible workshop. I don’t think I have experienced anything like this."

"Meeting and photographing her has inspired us all and we can’t wait for the good that will come to her from all of this to unfold . She doesn’t speak English well but here ,she was explaining how she found us . I had sent an assistant , as many of you advised ,to leave a message with the people in the area where we photographed her…"

"I think what makes me a good portrait photographer is that I really see people. The moment I know I’m photographing someone, I already see them in their most beautiful state. Before I make the image, I already know the image and I aspire to that. Sometimes, it’s just an impression in my heart about who they are."

"I didn't think I made a great image, when the photographs landed for the first time on social media, everyone immediately thought she was a model."

"“In God’s presence, hope is re-birthed…always. In worship, we see Him as He is and He sprinkles us with grace to see how beautiful we are.”"

"My perfect Sunday would be a chilled, calming day, nothing too taxing. I try to watch films at the cinema whenever I can, or I go for a walk down by the river. … Richard and I might then try out a new restaurant we’ve heard about. I’m vegetarian and I love it that there are so many places in London with great veggie food. … I’ve got my own little fan group who call themselves the Sprouts, because of my obsession with Brussels sprouts, and they’re a fantastic group of girls that I chat to all the time. … Otherwise – this is embarrassing to admit – Richard and I will play Call of Duty. It’s a side of me that not a lot of people know about but I was a big games girl when I was a teenager and computer games are my guilty pleasure."

"Dabei ist grad der Staat das größte Übel, das alle Menschen seit Jahrhunderten versaut; und jeder einzelne von uns ist nur ein Dübel, in den der Staat den Nagel seiner Allmacht haut."

"It’s not until they tell you you’re going to die soon that you realize how short life is. Time is the most valuable thing in life because it never comes back. And whether you spend it in the arms of a loved one or alone in a prison-cell, life is what you make of it. Dream big."

"What goes on between an actor and the audience, at its best, is a dialogue. Sometimes you watch an actor on stage and somehow the performance isn’t getting through. The fourth wall is not only closed, it’s soundproofed. That’s because the actor isn’t connecting with the living and breathing human beings in the room with him. The audience feels the distance and they react accordingly. As an actor, you have to fire up your sensors at 100 percent all the time. You have to be in touch with all those heartbeats in the audience, connect with them. Sometimes during the Grinch performances, a child will shout out something. And I’ll turn right around, look them in the eye and respond to them."