Top 111 Quotes & Sayings by Idina Menzel - Page 2

I don't think I ever really knew the right words to 'Hava Nagilah,' which isn't great for a Jewish singer.

The truth is I love musical theater and always have.

You can't be the vulnerable, transparent, raw person required to be an artist, and then cover that stuff up and meet the world with some kind of armor on. It just doesn't go.

Nerves are good. They keep you alive.

I will never leave the theater. My heart is there, and I love being on stage 8 times a week.

The cool thing is that, unlike film, the theatre roles for women get better and better as you get older.

For singers, I believe we can sing in a lot of keys. I know I have this big range, but the point is to find a key that emotionally connects people.

I'm more comfortable revealing myself than hiding behind metaphors. I respond to artists who reveal something of themselves.

I definitely use my music to kind of alleviate my stress and get me through specific moments in time where I'm just being really tough on myself.

I was once an extra in a Bruce Springsteen video where they did a live performance video at Tramps. I forget the name of the song.

'Rent,' for me, was a significant time in my life because it was my first break. It was my first professional job. I also met my husband in that cast, Taye Diggs.

Who am I, if I'm not this singer with big high notes? I identify with my voice. But I'm more than just the acrobatics.

I'm smart enough to know to work with smart people.

I find that, maybe because I'm also a singer, I hear music in characters all the time, even if they don't sing. I hear what affects me in my heart.

'Frozen' definitely isn't about a man, but about the relationship between two sisters. At different times in our lives we find ourselves either more connected to or disconnected from the people in our family, and I think audiences will really be able to relate to that.

I think I hid my singing talent from a lot of my friends at school because I didn't want to alienate anyone. If everyone was singing along in the car to a Madonna song, I didn't join in because when we're younger we're afraid of sticking out or showing off, when in fact we should own those things that make us really unique.

It's hard to absorb and to allow all that attention and accolades for 'Rent' because the rest of the country doesn't know who we are. Once I walk out of the door of 'Rent,' and I'm on the subway, it doesn't matter. It's an exaggerated sense of fame.

I've met so many of my idols, but the one person that has eluded me is Bono. But because he's done 'Spider-Man,' I keep thinking maybe, through a Broadway connection, somehow our paths will eventually merge.

I keep saying, the older I get, the younger my audience gets. Because 'Wicked' and 'Rent' and 'Glee,' each one was a young audience, so it's a great thing to have, so then you know that as they get older and have kids, they'll maybe still buy tickets to my shows when I'm 80 and in Vegas!

Everything's always about being homogenized and following in a group. The people who stand out always have the most problems.

The sky in Texas is the most amazing sky in the whole country, I think, like you can see more sky in Texas than you can see anywhere else in the world.

As an artist, you have to express yourself. I make no excuses for my versatility. I grew up singing classical arias, but I love rock n' roll and jazz standards.

As much as I appreciate people putting me in the category of these very acrobatic belters, I feel like my strength is my... interpretation and my truthfulness with songs, and I don't want young people to think it's all about the high notes that they have to hit.

I tend to have a pattern of playing misunderstood characters.

I'm constantly trying to work on the person that I am and work on my shortcomings, and I guess I want people to know that it's ok to be a work in progress, as long as you keep trying to figure it out. But that search and that discovery is what makes life kind of rich, and it's what makes life rich... period.

My favorite thing of all time is a New York City weekend when there's a blizzard. Everything gets really quiet, and everyone goes to the movies and the park.

I have the potential to be very strong and powerful, sometimes angry, sometimes passionate. I also can be shy and withhold that because I am afraid. I don't want to freak anybody out with my passion... So I struggle with that all the time.

I used to be someone that needed nine hours of sleep; otherwise, I didn't think I was going to sound good when I sang, and I was very disciplined and anal about my preparation. When you become a parent, there just isn't that time, you know?

When I lived in London when I did 'Wicked' there, everyone told me the audiences might be much more reserved, but I found it was completely the opposite. They jumped to their feet sooner, even more enthusiastically than the New York audiences did, and they were just as warm and as enthusiastic and supportive as New York.

The more success you get, you start to be harder on yourself or more afraid of the looking glass. You have to learn to build a thicker skin because people are paying more attention.

It's the face and the body and the thing that we hide inside that can keep us from the world, but my voice is my voice.

Performing live on stage is such a community, whether it's my musicians or a cast of a show that I'm in. And then when you're in the studio or on set, it's a much more solitary experience. Both can serve me at different times in my life. And when I go back and forth from one to the other, it helps me appreciate all of them much better.

We are never doing anyone any favors by withholding our gifts from the world. It's scary to be fierce, but you can't compromise that for fear of losing those around you.

Usually I'm pretty myopic. It's hard for me to multi-task, so to speak. If I'm in a show and I'm creating a character, I'm just completely into that. It's really hard for me to do anything else like write music. I have to sort of shut down different sides of my head and just focus.

After 'Rent,' I tried to make a record, and it didn't work out, and it was the Broadway community that welcomed me back. It's where I feel the most understood, most at home.

I think as women, the smarter and more powerful we are, the more it can be threatening and alienating to other people, more than with men. That's something we need to support each other with.

That's what I love about songwriting - that you can write something about your own experiences and think it's completely specific to you, and then people can take away a completely different meaning for themselves. I really love that. I think you've been successful at writing a song when it has a larger life than yourself.

I feel like I was born to do this... I started working professionally as soon as I could, doing weddings and things like that in high school, while everyone else was having keg parties. I just felt destined to do it and really committed and driven; it was something that just felt right all my life.

I pretty much have no life outside of the theatre. I go home every night, and I put the TV on, and I veg out and order food.

I don't do too much looking back and regretting things - not that I haven't made tons of mistakes. But I do think people are in our lives so we can learn lessons and evolve as better human beings.

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small, and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all.

My favorite thing of all time is a New York City when there's a blizzard. Everything gets really quiet, and everyone goes to the movies and the park.

Performing isn't only about the acrobatics and the high notes: It's staying in the moment, connecting with the audience in an authentic way, and making yourself real to them through the music. I am more than the notes I hit, and that's how I try to approach my life. You can't get it all right all the time, but you can try your best. If you've done that, all that's left is to accept your shortcomings and have the courage to try to overcome them.

I know I'm known for singing some of those high notes but that's really not what giving someone goose bumps is all about. It's about really trying to find what makes you unique...

In my songs there's a lot of intimate, personality - driven, sweet singing, and that's the kind I actually love the most, as close to how we speak as possible.I do get to do the crazy high notes, of course. But that's also a part of me. I'm full spectrum. A vulnerable side and a side that wants to kick ass.

The one who tried too hard, the outsider, the oddball. Yeah, that was me.

You can't get it all right all the time, but you can try your best. If you've done that, all that's left is to accept your shortcomings and have the courage to try to overcome them.

When you sit back and you just do what you love, things happen

Not like [Adele Dazeems] going to follow me around for the rest of my life.

The cold never bothered me anyway.

The truth is I love musical theatre and always have.