I spoke to a million in one service, in Korea, in Seoul. And that was the largest audience I ever have had.

It’s really fun to be on stage in front of people.

I don’t think about who the audience is for my books.

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

I shall make that trip. I shall go to Korea.

I’ve spent too much time giving speeches, traveling the world.

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

There’s something about being in front of a live audience that’s fun. It’s a really interesting, very electric, very alive, and intense experience, and you can’t get it anywhere else. And I’ve been doing it since I was 23, so it’s part of my being – it’s part of my fabric as a person.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

For me, writing a song, I sit down and the process doesn’t really involve me thinking about the demographic of people I’m trying to hit or who I want to be able to relate to the song or what genre of music it falls under.

In my opinion, the only way to conquer stage fright is to get up on stage and play. Every time you play another show, it gets better and better.

Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

Forty is when you actually begin even deserving to be on stage telling people what you think.

I’m much more comfortable and confident running out on the field in front of 70,000 people instead of standing in front of a camera trying to say some lines. The people who do that as a profession are very talented because it’s certainly not easy.

I never have an intended audience. I just write, you know.

In retrospect, I can see I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching about. Ha! Like, that sure made sense!

I prefer the old theaters because the audience is… trapped.

A career is born in public – talent in privacy.

If somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re going to have to take what they get.

I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can’t be all that bad.

Wherever I go meeting the public… spreading a message of human values, spreading a message of harmony, is the most important thing.

I didn’t have to win, and winning wasn’t important to me. Being world champion wasn’t important to me. What was important to me was entertaining the audience, and whether that meant winning, losing, singing, or whatever it was on the live show we were doing every week, which was awesome, I was game for it.

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don’t want to meet them.

I’ve had the honor of speaking at many commencements.

I guess any movie actor can become a role model for audiences out there who enjoy him.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

In oratory the will must predominate.

I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

Very rarely do I talk off the top of my head on stage. I’m not an improv guy. I’m a writer-guy who presents what he’s written.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

It’s very intense to be in front of a live audience. It’s just an amazing experience. It’s dangerous. Everything out there is heightened. The bad stuff is extra-worse. The silences are extra-silent. The good stuff is amazing. It’s electric when you walk out there. For 90 minutes, you’re on this other planet.

At first, I wasn’t really keen on the idea of me being on stage having to sing in front of people.

Countries which receive aid do graduate. Within a generation, Korea went from being a big recipient to being a big aid donor. China used to get quite a bit of aid; now it’s aid-neutral.

I’ve always had to conquer fear when I’m on stage. Basically, I was and still am a very shy person. It’s absolutely in conflict with what I do. But once I deliver the first joke I’m okay. It’s like I’m out there all by myself just delivering my lines to nobody in particular without ever trying to notice the audience in front of me.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth-and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.

When a family film is done well, there’s a character that every member of the audience can relate to. I want to be one of those guys.

I have been – I have spoken in Bir Zeit a number of times.

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

I’m mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it’s the only place where I’m happy.

Being shoved into the top-40 scene was an unusual experience. It was great I’d become accessible to a huge audience but not terribly fulfilling.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both.

I liked school, but I used to dread those moments when the teacher would call me up to give an oral report. I forced myself to deal with it and not dwell on the class in front of me – to keep a straight face, give the report and concentrate on getting it right. That’s normally how I perform. That’s how I am.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.

When I speak at my local church, which I try to do 35 to 40 times a year, I try in every lesson to take the Old Testament text or New Testament text and apply them to what is happening to me or how that applies to the audience that I’m teaching in a modern, fast-changing, technological world. I use headlines, interfaith and that sort of thing.

I can move any crowd.

We don’t want people to leave the stadium until the game finishes.

Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

When you walk out onstage in front of 65,000 people, it can bring you to tears.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.