Author Profile
John Cameron Mitchell
1963 • American • Actor
61
Total Quotes
Collected Meditations
Showing 61 quotesMy favorite playwright is probably Samuel Beckett, and he was always laughing at the abyss.— John Cameron Mitchell
I am just touched at how strongly the real Hed-heads feel. It feels different from other kinds of devotees; maybe it's the way I felt with certain bands when I was a kid. It feels like a band more than a play.— John Cameron Mitchell
The think that we hung the film version all on was 'Hedwig' on tour. On stage, it's one theatre, one show. It just seemed natural to change it. In the film, we were able to go to flashback rather than have her talk to the audience. And we had the play to practice and to see where we had made mistakes.— John Cameron Mitchell
I was brought up very Catholic, and the character of Tommy Gnosis got his name from there.— John Cameron Mitchell
I always think that in some way, art is the best tool we have to prepare for death. It's like a sculpture that you can interpret differently every time you look at it.— John Cameron Mitchell
I like making art that's useful to people who have a harder road. Art is a tool to get through it; it's a tool to prepare for the worst. By envisioning it in an artistic context, you can make sense of it before and after it happens.— John Cameron Mitchell
I think as far as themes, 'Hedwig' is about what music meant to you as a kid and how rock n' roll can save you; that is definitely part of it.— John Cameron Mitchell
I don't like being choreographed to a T. I like to take steps and make them my own.— John Cameron Mitchell
Bob Fosse, even though he wasn't gay. He was certainly queer and had a huge effect on the 'Hedwig' film, as did Hal Ashby and Robert Altman, who had a weird butch queer feeling about him. His films almost flirted with camp but in an extremely realistic acting way.— John Cameron Mitchell
I think I was scared of the drag thing, as a lot of gay boys are. It's sort of knocked out of you in junior high. I wouldn't find guys who were very feminine attractive. Then, doing 'Hedwig,' I got to be man and woman, really butch and really femme at the same time, and I realized, this is kind of the ideal.— John Cameron Mitchell
My favorite model of success is when people say, 'Nobody bought that first Velvet Underground album, but everyone who did started a band.'— John Cameron Mitchell
I don't regret anything, because I feel better every year, and if I'd done something different, maybe I wouldn't. I'm more of a whole person, the older I get.— John Cameron Mitchell
The people that were most interesting were always questioning the status quo.— John Cameron Mitchell
New York is so unique, and you are not always encouraged to consider the people in the city your neighbors because of the fast pace and surface anonymity.— John Cameron Mitchell