As quoted in The Fabulous Fanny : The Story of Fanny Brice (1953) by Norman Katkov, p. 71
Context: Your audience gives you everything you need. They tell you. There is no director who can direct you like an audience. You step out on the stage and you can feel it is a nervous audience. So you calm them down. I come out before an audience and maybe my house burned down an hour ago, maybe my husband stayed out all night, but I stand there. I'm still. I don't move. I wait for the introduction. Maybe I cough. Maybe I touch myself. But before I do anything, I got them with me, right there in my hand and comfortable. That's my job, to make them comfortable, because if they wanted to be nervous they could have stayed home and added up their bills.
“There was a great director who directed a picture that I wrote who barred me from the set— quite appropriately— and said, “I’m sorry, Jim. When you’re directing, you don’t need to know everything. You need the illusion that you do.” And, you know, and I WOULD be there— behind him trying to signal the actors in, you know, in a way I wasn’t even aware of.”
In the documentary Dreams on Spec
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
James L. Brooks 2
American director, producer and screenwriter 1940Related quotes
“I didn't know," he said. "I didn't know you needed me."
Her voice shook. "I always need you”
Source: City of Fallen Angels
“You don’t have to know everything. You simply need to know where to find it when necessary.”
continuity (3) “After One Decade”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Dla mnie jesteś trochę jak Rudolph Valentino, nie wiem, czy pamiętasz takiego bohatera kina. Znakomity kierunek dla ciebie: on był bohaterem kina niemego.
To Idol contestants
Tales of Three Hemispheres http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/1/4/4/11440/11440-8.txt, A Shop In Go-By Street
Tara Reid Is Not a Loser https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wd47d5/tara-reid-is-not-a-loser-954 (August 30 2014)