Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.

Quite honestly I never had a desire to be an actor. I tell people I did not choose acting acting chose me. I never grew up wanting to be an actor. I wanted to play football. In about 9th grade an English teacher told me I had a talent to act. He said I should audition for a performing arts high school so I did on a whim. I got accepted.

The teacher of history's work should be ideally not simply a description of past cultures but a performance of the culture in which we live and are increasingly taking our being.

When my opera Plump Jack was performed in 1989 my first piano teacher sent me something that I'd composed when I was four. I remember I played it and it still sounded like me. I'm the same composer I was then.

If I wasn't an actor I'd be a teacher a history teacher. After all teaching is very much like performing. A teacher is an actor in a way. It takes a great deal to get and hold a class.

Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the 'naturals ' the ones who somehow know how to teach.

My overnight success was really 15 years in the making. I'd been writing songs since I was 6 and playing in bands and performing since I was 14.

For the past few years I was the more visible Asian performer and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it's possible to actually reach success doing movies.

On receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided on my illustrious predecessor and which he has discharged so faithfully and so well I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and success.

Honesty is the cornerstone of all success without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist.

A coach once told me there are four factors that determine a players' performance: his tactical awareness his physical condition his technical ability and his mental strength.

I'm a father of four so whenever I'm not working my kids have their different sports or plays or school performances so I don't do a whole lot of other stuff besides being a dad.

We all know that girls who compete in sports perform better in school are physically healthier and have a stronger self-esteem.

I am a sports fanatic and being able to perform at halftime for the fans of the Steelers and the Jets is such a thrill for me.

But one way or another judges perform a very vital function in our society. They have a risky job and they are entitled to security.

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.

I don't remember ever deciding to become a performer. I just always was. I began performing by mimicking the performers on the new television that first took the attention away from me as the baby of the household. I continued performing to put a smile on my grandmother's face and always considered her when accepting or declining roles.

I love the live performances and Las Vegas. I also like making films that are being discovered by another generation. Having been a teen idol of the '60s is great because you realize you left your generation with a smile and good memories.

The East Germans first used biomechanics. This meant that rather than guessing about technique and form they could apply changes to athletic performance based on science.

I wanted to be a dancer my whole life. And when I gave it up to act I always had a really sad part of myself that missed it and missed performing and missed being physical in that way.

Before I left for Germany I had gotten accepted to the performing arts high school in New York which was a big dream of mine. And having to leave that was very sad for me.

You put a song on the record or on tape and you stop singing it. You just don't sit around and sing it anymore unless you're performing. That's kind of sad.

When I look back at those pictures of my mother performing - and listen to her recordings - it makes me sad to think that all of that joy she found in her work came to an end. I wish she hadn't had to make that sacrifice even if it was for the benefit of my father and siblings and me.

If we perform the romantic repertoire we need more musicians.