Technical Quotes

See also Technically QuotesSee also Technically Quotes, Core English Vocabulary (T) Quotes

about his early drumming years with The Beatles] I started to be an engineer but I banged me thumb on the first day. I became a drummer because it was the only thing I could do. But whenever I hear another drummer I know I`m no good. (John Lennon) taught me the song I sing. I can only play on the off beat because John can`t keep up on the rhythm guitar. I`m no good on the technical things but I`m good with all the motions, swinging my head, like. That`s because I love to dance but you can`t do that on the drums. I figure we`re good for another four years. I don`t want to invest me money in stocks or anything. I just want to have it and draw 20 or 30 quid a week. The main thing is, I don`t ever want to go back to work.

- Ringo Starr

Originally, I didn`t like (John Ford)--because of his material: for example, the comic secondary characters, the brutality, the male-female relationships typified by the man`s slapping the woman on the backside. But eventually I came to understand that he had achieved an absolute uniformity of technical expertise. And his technique is the more admirable for being unobtrusive: His camera is invisible; his staging is perfect; he maintains a smoothness of surface in which no one scene is allowed to become more important than any other. Such mastery is possible only after one has made an enormous number of films. Questions of quality aside, John Ford is the Georges Simenon of directors.

- François Truffaut

"I`ve learned so much, especially with Chad. He is really good with camera and lighting and technical stuff. He has learned a lot about that and he`s really good to work with and so I have learned so much technically. It`s been amazing."

- Bethany Joy Galeotti

Doing the second one was interesting, because I`d never had to go back to play a character again. It was three years between the two episodes. It was a bit easier because I was more used to the technical demands. In other films you rehearse, crack the scene and shoot it. In Star Wars, that`s not the case. It`s a very different process with an enormous amount of blue-screen work. It`s very difficult - you play scenes with people who aren`t there. (on `Attack of the Clones`)

- Ewan McGregor

Movie sex scenes are never romantic, and you`re never swept off your feet. It`s always very technical....I`m counting the beats: Okay, we`re supposed to kiss for two beats, then I say my line, then they want another kiss for four beats. I`m going, One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three and break. It`s like choreography. Sometimes you have actors who feel it`s their job to get as far down into your throat as possible. You`re like, Excuse me, I like you, but not that much.

- Sandra Bullock

At Chicago Hope they have a technical staff - there are rehearsals separated from the rest of the show to try and make it as realistic as possible.

- Mark Harmon

At Chicago Hope they have a technical staff that works real hard to make that O.R. as realistic as possible.

- Mark Harmon

For the movie Glory, before going out to shoot the whipping scene I`m backstage in a room, and I`m thinking, how am I gonna do this scene? All I did - you know people ask me, how did you prepare? - I say, I prayed. And I got on my knees and they were waiting for me, and I prayed. And then I prayed to all the spirits. I said, "Look fellas, ladies," and I`m talking about those who have been, and I said, "Look I don`t know, I`m just rolling with you all. Just whatever happens, I`m going. And I said are you with me? Come on!" I`m serious! And I went out there and what hit me was, I`m in charge. Never put my head down. This isn`t the first time this has happened to me the character - and in fact I had the guy build all the scars to put on my back - and I went out there with an attitude that I`m going to take this and not fold. But it hurt. And the tear was actually real. You know, you just allow it and you`re thankful for it. It`s not technical. It`s not science. It`s spirit.

- Denzel Washington

Most of the people that I went to school with - I went to secondary school - we were educated to go and work in the line at Ford`s, and if we were lucky, technical skilled labor. I sort of rejected that, and thought I wanted to do something else.

- Ernie Pyle

Well, if you`d like to get technical, I`m English, and Russell`s from New Zealand. (when asked about the studio`s reluctance to hire "two Australians" for roles in the period piece L.A. Confidential (1997).)

- Guy Pearce

You learn to rely on a few basic movements and use your voice to the greatest extent possible to convey your emotions. So there was a technical challenge there and a responsibility to create a character from behind the mask.

- Helena Bonham Carter

(on "The Ball Room Dance" scene, her favorite from Labyrinth (1986)): I wore a beautiful silver ball gown, which was a refreshing change from the blue jeans I wore in almost every other scene. It was really a gorgeous set, with masses of huge chandeliers and thousands of flickering candles, hundreds of silken cushions and curtains, and masses of people in strange masks and ornate dresses. There was the thrill of dancing with David Bowie to one of the songs he composed especially for the film. There wasn`t enough room, for technical reasons, to really dance around properly, but we just drifted slowly and gracefully (I hope!) to David`s music, and he looked fabulous! It`s all a sort of magical fantasy sequence inside a huge bubble.

- Jennifer Connelly

Because the series is situated in the next century, and for the most part under water, there are many innovative technical gadgets. It`s a kind of StarTrek. When I first came there, I was really impressed myself.

- Jonathan Brandis

When we shoot 24, there are so many things I have to worry about, from the script to technical things to my performance, that I don`t have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season, which is like making 12 movies.

- Kiefer Sutherland

I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

- Lena Horne

The stage can be more satisfying because you spend a lot of time rehearsing, and film is more technical. In the end it just depends on the work and the director. I do like the world of the theater though.

- Philip Seymour Hoffman

(on his character Lyle in The Italian Job (2003) (who speaks a lot of technical jargon:) "I don`t believe in e-mail. I rarely use a cell phone and I don`t have a fax. But part of the reason I got this job is that I`m good at making complicated technical terms sound normal. It sounds obnoxious, but I compare it to doing Shakespeare. You just figure out the emotional content of the line and go with that. It doesn`t matter what you`re saying if you come from an honest place. Though most people don`t know half the words, you don`t have to dumb down. I hate when they show a policeman saying "I`ve got a 3-U at Baker Street ... breaking and entering." No one talks like that."

- Seth Green

Communication is the key, and it`s one thing I had to learn-to talk to the actors. I was so involved with the visual and technical aspects that I would forget about the actors.

- Steve Buscemi

(on critics) "You have to have a thick enough skin to cope with the criticism. I`m very self-critical and I have a lot of friends that I trust who are film directors and writers and people in my profession. I trust them to be extremely critical but I trust their opinion; their opinion is thoughtful, knowledgeable. I also know them personally so I know the psychological slant they are putting on it. I know what their tastes are and I can say, "Well that`s great for them but that`s not great for me." Technical criticism is extremely helpful but you are only going to get that from your peers. "

- George Lucas

I started in the acting business at age 8, so I feel it`s my experience and social skills for example, how to be charismatic, how not to lose your temper - that have helped me the most to succeed. But I did develop a plan: I wanted to work with good people who had a passion for what they did. Still, at age 17, I made the decision to study the technical part of the business as well. I got a two year degree in radio and television communication at Elizabeth Seton College in Yonkers, New York. I figured if I never made It as an actor, I could go to Alaska, be a cameraman, and collect a paycheck. It would be something to fall back on, but something I still enjoyed.

- Giancarlo Esposito

I`m way down the scale in terms of technical ability, ... But my emotional connection is very apparent. A lot of jazz is very internalized, and sometimes it`s more about the passion you put into it. It`s a really subjective thing.

- Jamie Cullum

For this game, we shot it just like it as if it was a film so there wasn`t that much different from doing a film other than some technical things for the costume that had to be done so they could transfer the footage later and make it look animated.

- Josie Maran

I`ve done sexual stuff before - onstage, which is even more emotionally difficult. With a TV crew around, you are stopping and starting; it becomes really technical. It`s not erotic at all.

- Randy Harrison

I`ve had to learn everything about movies by myself. For the theater, I studied with a wonderful old man in Goteborg, where I spent four years. He was a hard, difficult man, but he knew the theater- and I learned from him. For the movies, however, there was no one. Before the War, I was a schoolboy. Then, during the War, we got see no foreign films at all. By the time it was over, I was working had to support a wife and three children. Before, fortunately, I am by nature an autodidact, one who can teach himself- though it`s an uncomfortable thing at times. Self-taught people sometimes cling too much to the technical side, the sure side and place technical perfection too high.

- Ingmar Bergman

Coaches aren`t concentrating enough of the technical part of this game and that could lead to injuries.

- Troy Vincent

In Evita I wasn`t really hugely involved with it. I gave a little bit of help but they needed a bit of technical help on the movie and so some of my music people went in at the end of the movie and helped out with it.

- Andrew Lloyd Webber

Paul`s the writer. Yeah, I wrote a little of that stuff, but that`s just technically true. In spirit, and in essence of the truth, it doesn`t matter. So I don`t know, maybe I`m being foolish for not being technical. Yeah, I wrote a certain portion of the things.

- Art Garfunkel

At the present rate of progress, it is almost impossible to imagine any technical feat that cannot be achieved - if it can be achieved at all - within the next few hundred years.

- Arthur C. Clarke

Not being a flashy guy, not being a guy with the blond hair, not being a guy with the great body, my deal was always execute, execute, execute. Fundamentals. Be good at what you do, be a damn good wrestler, which is what I tried to be. Bret Hart, same philosophy. The thing about Bret Hart, that excellence of execution was 100% correct. He was a guy that bell to bell - it took a little longer to get used to Bret Hart because, if he did it, it made sense. Straight line, A to B, there was no dart around A to C, no dart around E to F. Bret Hart was one of the greatest technical wrestlers that this business has ever known, everything made sense, and to be honest with you, the first challenge Tully and I had, him and Neidhart, the first real, real big match that we ever had, I think it was Summersalm in `88. And when it was all said and done, it was just an honor to be in the ring with him, he was just that good.

- Bret Hart

The first thing I did in the studio was to want to tear that camera to pieces. I had to know how that film got into the cutting room, what you did to it in there, how you projected it, how you finally got the picture together, how you made things match. The technical part of pictures is what interested me. Material was the last thing in the world I thought about. You only had to turn me loose on the set and I`d have material in two minutes, because I`d been doing it all my life.

- Buster Keaton

My wife says that stage acting is like being on a tightrope with no net, and being in the movies, there is a net - because you stop and go over it again. It`s very technical and mechanical. On stage you`re on your own.

- Eli Wallach

I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can`t trust em.

- Jim Valvano

I`ve had parallel careers in the theatre and in movies. In the theatre, I often play characters with a strong sense of innocence who aren`t as intelligent as I am. The reason: my size. I seem sort of big and good-natured on stage. It would be too much for a big man to play a forbidding character on stage. So I play big people who are fairly gentle. It`s a wonderful thing to build a career on. What I offer to movie-makers is that I can put a tremendous amount of theatrical background and technical equipment at their disposal. I can make believable the over-the-top characters.

- John Lithgow

Through a technical difficulty, I may have offended some people. If that`s the case, I apologize and I will face any consequences.

- Mark Grace

I was having a private conversation with (engineers in) the truck, like we do everyday, and evidently some words that aren`t air-able came out and through a technical difficulty, I may have offended some people. If that`s the case, I apologize and I will face any consequences.

- Mark Grace

Whether e-mails were lost or not was a technical conclusion that had not been reached yet. What I asked be done was to conduct an investigation to determine the nature of the problem.

- Mark Lindsay

In a theater, the part is mine and I can control it as I want to. In the movies, I don`t have direct contact, and I am fighting technical machinery.

- Max von Sydow

Technical problems are something you can do nothing about as a driver, in the sense that you are not able to go and redesign the pistons, or whatever,

- Mika Häkkinen

And so I`ve always been fascinated by the technical end of theater, and a lot of my closest friends are not actors, but in the other end of the business.

- Rene Auberjonois

(about his early drumming years with The Beatles) I started to be an engineer but I banged me thumb on the first day. I became a drummer because it was the only thing I could do. But whenever I hear another drummer I know I`m no good. (John Lennon) taught me the song I sing. I can only play on the off beat because John can`t keep up on the rhythm guitar. I`m no good on the technical things but I`m good with all the motions, swinging my head, like. That`s because I love to dance but you can`t do that on the drums. I figure we`re good for another four years. I don`t want to invest me money in stocks or anything. I just want to have it and draw 20 or 30 quid a week. The main thing is, I don`t ever want to go back to work.

- Ringo Starr

If income was directly proportional to technical proficiency and education, classical and jazz musicians would be some of the most affluent people in the world

- Robert Coleman

(from 1973) All I want to do is get better and quantity can help me to solve my problems. I`m thrilled by the idea that I`m not even sure how many films I`ve done. If I don`t have a script I adore, I do one I like. If I don`t have one I like, I do one that has an actor I like or that presents some technical challenge.

- Sidney Lumet

From a technical point of view, there seemed to me to be absolutely no reason why - with the existing technology - we couldn`t do very high quality audio, because whereas the boom in digital graphics is ongoing, the boom in digital audio has already happened.

- Thomas Dolby

I went to school for about 2 years on a technical course, and I learned a lot. I learned about air mixture ratios and all the stuff; I learned how to draw blood.

- Tom Araya

But it wasn`t just a technical approach towards the piano, studying the music for this film was also a way of approaching the soul of the film, because the film is really about the soul of Schubert and the soul of Bach.

- Isabelle Huppert

The level of risk on Pierre`s run was beyond. To culminate in a technical run like that shows nerves of steel.

- Bob Burnquist

The bottom line is, it`s a great script and that`s very inspiring and makes you want to overcome whatever technical difficulties you come up against.

- John Crowley

I am the greatest technical wrestler in the history of the WWF!

- Chris Benoit

I don`t want to do an action movie, because I`ve acted in them, and they`re so boring to do, because they`re so technical. The headache of that is daunting. But, if it were an action movie with really interesting characters, how great would that be?

- Tony Goldwyn

Most of the inspectors, even though they have technical skills, are not experienced in conducting inspections, and they`ll be on a very steep learning curve.

- Jonathan Tucker