QUOTES by Brian Stokes Mitchell
Find most favourite and famour Authors from A.A Milne to Zoe Kravitz.
I think the Oscar is the big money award; that means you've made it in a money sense. The Tony has always represented - to me, and most actors that I've talked to - an artistic award. It means you're an artist and not just a popular performer.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
One of the interesting things an artist does is they keep rediscovering things, whether it's a jazz piece or a role you've done for 3,000 performances or a song you're singing for the 3,000th time. My job is to find that spark that keeps it fresh and alive.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I have been fortunate in my career to play a lot of lead roles. The downside to that is I don't have a life outside of the show. I go on lockdown even with my wife if the show is really difficult and I am having vocal problems.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I don't recommend skipping college, but things have worked out for me.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I didn't really think I liked jazz all that much until I was about 18. That's when the freedom and possibilities of it began to seem appealing to me.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I like to capture the spirit of what the writers intended but find my own nuances. That comes from jazz - the invention and freeness within a structure.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
The older I get, I realize, 'Man, I'm a very rare bird,' and that's not because of necessarily my talent or ability; it so much depends on luck and just the grace of the universe.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I always call myself the luckiest actor in the world because I made a living solely as a performer from the time I left home at 17 years old.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
At our house, we'd always open presents with our Christmas records playing. 'Little Drummer Boy' was one of my favorites when I was a kid because it was about a kid.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I'm having a ball on 'Glee.' It's a joy to be working there - the whole cast is so talented.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I love seeing the stars, and I love being around my friends and family.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I've been really fortunate that my concert career has taken off hugely. I can make a living. I enjoy performing in front of a live audience, and I can do something different every time. Sometimes I'm with a quartet, sometimes I'm solo, sometimes with a symphony, and I get to go to different cities and meet different people.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
When you're doing eight shows a week, you don't have much of a personal life.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I was raised on jazz. My father, from the time I was born, used to get up early on Saturdays and Sundays and put on Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Kenny Burrell, Sarah Vaughn, John Coltrane - all these great, classic albums.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I've sung a whole lot of jazz. It's my favorite style of music to sing. People don't realize it, because they're so accustomed to hearing me sing musical theater.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
Stay as connected as you can. Sometimes that means you're going to do a job that may not pay you much but may give you a great connection. If the work is not going the way you need it to go, create your own!
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
One of the best pieces of wisdom I ever got is you work because you work, meaning you work because you're saying yes to things, and you're connecting with people.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I always say it takes three weeks to know a character and three months to own it. And I think that's probably true of every theater artist. If you really want to see a performance of the show, wait three months.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
'Ragtime' was the most magical show that I've done. I had an incredible experience with that, with the show itself, with the cast, with the audience. The response to that show - my God, it really blew me away, the reactions to that show, the way it changed their lives and altered their thinking, their own self-discovery.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
Everybody comes to the planet with certain gifts. It may be writing, it may be acting, it may be singing, it may be being a lawyer, it may be making a beautiful cabinet, it may be being a spectacular dry cleaner. It could be anything. We all have gifts in different areas.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I studied film scoring and orchestration and conducting and arranging in my twenties, and I scored a lot of television shows and other things.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I started out on the stage, then I had a great career in television for quite a few years. The good news about a TV series is that they give you a certain amount of fame and money. The bad news is that you're in people's living rooms every week and get associated with a particular character.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
There's a lot of risk involved in acting, and you can't take the same kind of risks when you have a kid to feed.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
Left to my own devices, I would go to bed at 2:30 or 3, but I can't do that if I'm getting up at 6:50!
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
If you can make an audience laugh, you can make them love any character.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
There are some projects where you have to just start doing it, and, after a while, the show starts telling you what it wants to be. You put your spirit in and, after a while, something bigger takes over, and it turns out to be much more fun and creative than what it was at the beginning.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I'm a fan of odd meters. For example, I've decided to sing 'No Business Like Show Business,' but I'll be doing it in constantly changing 5/4, 7/4 and 11/4 time signatures. I've found a way to make that work.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
Through most of my life, music has been like a radio that plays and plays in my head.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
'Ragtime' is about how we get through ugliness, how we talk together, work together, get through it together.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
To take the ugly language out of 'Ragtime' is to sanitize it, and that does it a great disservice.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
The first time I really had an influence on a show was during 'Ragtime.' It's still the most magical show that I've ever done.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I always like to talk about how important space is. Art is in the spaces. Anybody can sing a note; it takes an artist to sing the spaces. Anybody can paint a brushstroke; it takes an artist to know when not to put the brushstroke.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
Honestly, I hate watching myself on TV - I have always hated watching myself and listening to myself.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
Astaire was ballroom, basically, and Gene Kelly had such athleticism - that's always what I responded to and what just blew my head open when I watched Gene Kelly's numbers. But, Fred Astaire was just so incredibly inventive and so, so smooth - so smooth.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I'm the chairman of the board of the Actor's Fund. It's an incredible organization. It helps anybody that has made their living in the performing arts and entertainment: actors, singers, dancers, film producers, agents, managers, ticket takers, writers, anybody in times of need or crisis.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
The first role that I played as a musical - I was 14 years old, and I played Birdie in 'Bye Bye Birdie.' That was an awakening of, 'Wow, I'm good at that. People are responding.' And I hardly knew what I was doing back then, but there was something that people were seeing.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I think the problem is when people hear 'arts education,' they think, 'I don't want my son to be some painter that's going to be hanging in some museum after he dies. I don't want my daughter to be a struggling artist making no money.' People don't realize it's more than that. It's beautiful. It brings beauty to our lives.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell
I'm one of the few lucky actors in the world. I've never waited tables. I never pumped gas. I've always earned a living. I never had to borrow from my parents. I was the first in our family to own a new car.
Quote by -Brian Stokes Mitchell