As a child, you respond physically, tactically. You're delighted by sound, you're delighted by recognizing something. It's like hide and seek. Is it there? Is it not there? Is it this note? Is it not this note? It's one fantastic game.
Yo-Yo MaRead
My job as a performer is to make sure that whatever happens in a performance lives in somebody else, that it's memorable... If you forget tomorrow what you heard yesterday, there's really not much point in you having been there - or me, for that matter.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A performer's goal is to create lasting memories for the audience through their performance.
In this quote, Yo-Yo Ma emphasizes the importance of leaving a significant impression on the audience during a performance. He suggests that the true value of a performance lies in its ability to resonate and linger in the minds of those who experience it, highlighting the interconnectedness of the performer's intent and the audience's memory.
Themes
PerformanceMemoryArtImpactAudience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used by a speaker at a workshop discussing the importance of impactful presentations.
More from Yo-Yo Ma
All quotes →There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge.
Yo-Yo MaRead
I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.
Yo-Yo MaRead
I think anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return.
Yo-Yo MaRead
When we enlarge our view of the world, we deepen our understanding of our own lives.
Yo-Yo MaRead
I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home.
Yo-Yo MaRead
Similar quotes
I like to write about painting because I think visually. I see my writing as blocks of color before it forms itself. I think I also care about painting because I'm not musical. Painting to me is not a metaphor for writing, but something people do that can never be reduced to words.
A. S. ByattRead
The function of the artist is to make people like life better than they have before.
Kurt VonnegutRead
Eraserhead is my most spiritual movie. No one understands when I say that, but it is.
David LynchRead
The novelist does not long to see the_x000D_ lion eat grass. He realizes that one and_x000D_ the same God created the wolf and the_x000D_ lamb, then smiled, “seeing that his_x000D_ work was good.”
Andre GideRead
As an actor, there's a bit of you that's decided you want to be looked at and watched, but there's a paradoxical bit that wants to run away.
Ralph FiennesRead
First, I would find an object which I would think is suitable for my characters and stories, then write about it, and in the end, I ended up with a house full of thousands of objects.
Orhan PamukRead