Improviser quotes:

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Vince Vaughn is a master improviser. -- Alan Tudyk
You have to know composition to be a good improviser. -- Roscoe Mitchell
As an improviser I'm now pretty comfortable with trios, so I'm thinking of working up to quartets. -- Fred Frith
My brother was an improviser. He's now a lobbyist, but he used to perform improv in the city when he was in high school, and one of the funniest guys I know to this day. -- Jake Johnson
Anytime I audition for something, it's always a question of whether or not the people I'm auditioning for understand I'm an improviser and I like to do that, and if they like that or if they just want someone who's going to do what's written. -- Adam Pally
The day of the great jazz improviser who doesn't know how to read music is over. -- Maynard Ferguson
I think not every improviser is a good stage actor. Certainly not every stage actor is a good improviser. -- Rich Sommer
The lifelong goal of an improviser is to listen to what the other person is saying, taking it in, and responding. -- Ali Farahnakian
I'm more of a writer than an actor, and I used to say that I'm mostly an improviser, though I haven't improvised in awhile. -- Tina Fey
I can't imagine doing anything without being an improviser. I can't imagine trying to write or act or direct without what improvising offers you. -- Marc Evan Jackson
I've always been an improviser. I was one before I knew even what the word was... And acting, that I've been doing since I was 5. -- Alan Arkin
Steve Carell is the most spectacular ad-lib improviser ever. And just doing a scene with him, it's just one incredible topping himself on every take. -- Lucy Punch
People know my background and for people who need an improviser, I'm one of the people they think to use if I'm appropriate for the part. -- Jason Mantzoukas
I've never gotten hired for drama because I'm a good improviser. I don't think people who write drama scripts want you playing with them as much. -- Matt Walsh
I think for anyone - male or female - in improv, the biggest thing to get over is the fear. I think every improviser has that. -- Rachel Dratch
I want to be an improviser, and I've worked very hard at that. It's an art. You don't just play whatever comes into your head; you have to be very deliberate about what you do. -- Neil Peart
Baseball players practice, runners practice, so how can you practice being funny? You get up onstage. You train as an improviser, playing make-believe, using the vernacular of improvisation, saying 'yes and' to other people's ideas, making statements. -- Ali Farahnakian
I guess I'm sort of spoiled because, most of the things that I get to do, people know that you're a good improviser, so they allow you at least one improv take, and for comedy, that's great. -- Matt Walsh
An improv team would have eight guys and one woman; that was still pretty standard. If you were a woman improviser, it was actually kind of an advantage because, if you were halfway decent, you'd get a lot more stage time. -- Rachel Dratch
John Hughes loved improvisers. -- Edie McClurg
When hiring, mix Harvard Nerds with Chicago Improvisers and stir. -- Tina Fey
Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action."(p.115) -- Malcolm Gladwell
When you hear Bach or Mozart, you hear perfection. Remember that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were great improvisers. I can hear that in their music. -- Dave Brubeck
What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we've sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers. -- Frances Mayes
Personally, I've found one of the more stimulating ways of playing in recent times has been to kind of move outside the free improvised area and work with people who are probably improvisers but they have a particular way of working. -- Derek Bailey
Jesus was a brilliant Jewish stand-up comedian, a phenomenal improviser. His parables are great one-liners. -- Camille Paglia
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If you're a good improviser, you improvise well enough that people think that you're doing a sketch. -- Amy Poehler
An improviser does not operate from a formless vacuum, but from three billion years of organic evolution -- Stephen Nachmanovitch
I consider myself a good improviser but Will and Kevin showed me I have a lot to learn. -- Erick Chavarria
I don't think I'm anything like the improviser. I'm not. I do better with at least an outline. -- Kathleen Turner
I think for anyone - male or female - in improv, the biggest thing to get over is the fear. I think every improviser has that. -- Rachel Dratch
My brother was an improviser. He's now a lobbyist, but he used to perform improv in the city when he was in high school, and one of the funniest guys I know to this day. -- Jake Johnson
I've always wanted to be an actor. I didn't get into this game to be the best improviser in the world. I didn't choose improv as a stepping stone, it just happened to become one. -- Rob Corddry

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