My first ever stage performance was in Edinburgh in 1960.

Does the real thing ever have the perfection of a stage performance?

I love surprising people with a present or a gift or a stage performance or anything.

[On Katharine Hepburn's stage performance:] She ran the whole gamut of emotions, from A to B.

I didnt develop or build synths. I had my technicians modify them for my live stage performances.

If you have stage fright, it never goes away. But then I wonder: is the key to that magical performance because of the fear?

A video taped stage performance is just - you know, it's never gonna be the same as it is if you're sitting there live in the theatre.

Stage performance is obviously a much grander sort of depiction. The audience isn't right in your face as close as a camera lens gets.

So what this is is us, our personalities refined down on to a stage performance. In other words, the way we play is the end product of the way we live - we live in the cities, you see.

Every medium has its advantages and weaknesses and there are many things I can put down on paper that I might not be able to put into film or into a stage performance. In each form, one can communicate powerfully in different ways.

I was excited to play Lil' Kim and I wanted to do the role justice. I worked really hard on that role, whether it was performing the rhymes, studying the dialect, her swagger and her stage performances. I wanted people to see my range and stretch my wings as an actress.

There is a remarkable nimbleness of style, a balancing act of tone, in Voltaire, which is hard to bring off on stage. When you speak the words out loud, the effect is very different from when you read them. So one needs to do something new with a stage performance, not simply 'tell the story'.

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