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Improvisation Quotes

Browse 323 quotes about Improvisation.

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Improvisation Quotes

“The 6 i’s toolkit combines enhanced intuition with real-time improvisation to adapt to changing circumstances and imagine new possibilities. Then, inspire yourself to invent your future and achieve the impossible.”

ImaginationIntuitionImprovisationForesightFutures ThinkingFuturesMetaruptionsStrategic Foresight
Book:Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
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“Mockingbirds are the true artists of the bird kingdom. Which is to say, although they're born with a song of their own, an innate riff that happens to be one of the most versatile of all ornithological expressions, mocking birds aren't content to merely play the hand that is dealt them. Like all artists, they are out to rearrange reality. Innovative, willful, daring, not bound by the rules to which others may blindly adhere, the mockingbird collects snatches of birdsong from this tree and that field, appropriates them, places them in new and unexpected contexts, recreates the world from the world. For example, a mockingbird in South Carolina was heard to blend the songs of thirty-two different kinds of birds into a ten-minute performance, a virtuoso display that serve no practical purpose, falling, therefore, into the realm of pure art.”

ArtMusicArtistsImprovisationMocking Birds
Book:Skinny Legs and All
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“Sometimes you get so jazzed on the moment you can actually hear the universe sing, as you swing from life’s high notes and hit the low notes equally, improvising artistically without missing a beat or hanging on like a leech, leaving each passing moment to zone in on the texture of the next melodic tones life continually brings‬.”

UniverseConsciousnessMusicJazzImprovisationLoving LifeAccepting LifeBeing PresentIn The MomentStaying Present
Author:Curtis Tyrone Jones
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“Whether personal or organizational, building capacity to effectively deal with change creates resilience, and without exceptional resilience there is no antifragility.”

InnovationResilienceImprovisationAudacityAntifragileAntifragility
Book:The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption: Volume III - Beta Your Life: Existence in a Disruptive World
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“He took a moment to regain his composure, but he got it right on the next take and finally began to make the Bolognese sauce. The pan on the stove had butter that we had already partially melted, and he poured in some olive oil. Then he stirred in the previously identified chopped vegetables, and after several minutes (which would later be edited out), the vegetables were translucent. When he added the finely chopped beef, Sally told the viewers, "You could also use a very good grade of hamburger." He poured in some milk, let it evaporate, and then added crushed tomatoes, red wine, and broth. "Now you must cook the sauce two, three hours until it is done," he said. The cameras stopped and we swapped the pan for an identical one with a finished sauce. We also poured boiling water and cooked spaghetti into the pot that had been sitting empty on the stove.”

IngredientsImprovisationSauceItalian CookingSally WoodsBolognese
Book:Last Bite
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“I get straight to work preparing my yeast, mixing it with a splash of milk and warming it in a pan as an image of a Swedish cardamom twist comes into my head. With its elaborate plaiting, it's like a cinnamon roll but more complex. I love a bread tied in knots. I'll make mine savory. That will be interesting. I turn off the burner and rush to my designated sage-green refrigerator on the side of the tent. It's stocked to the brim, stuffed full of fresh produce, exotic fruits, and dairy from local farms. I get to work, sorting through my options. What is this? Spring onion? No, chives. That'll be perfect. I'll dice them and mix them with olive oil, so they crisp up in the cracks of the bread, along with some mature cheddar. I dig deeper in the dairy compartment and find a log of expensive goat cheese. Even better! Then I'll add a ton of fresh-ground black pepper and top with some flaky sea salt. My mouth is already watering. Pair a few of these freshly baked buns with a crisp, mineral white and aperitvo is served!”

IngredientsImprovisationSavoryBreadmaking
Book:The Golden Spoon
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“Sally was demonstrating trout mousse rolled inside salmon fillets and napped- such a nice word- with hollandaise sauce. She made the hollandaise on her hot plate and handed it to me to keep warm on our back-table hot plate. When I took the pan from her, smiling for the audience, I could see that it had curdled; little bits of hard yolk were visible up close. I wasn't exactly sure what to do about it. I certainly didn't want to point it out to her, but I knew she wouldn't want to use it as it was. So I made another one. I melted butter on my hot plate and crouched under the skirted table with the butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and the blender. I waited for Sally to turn on the food processor to puree the trout, and then, knowing the processor would drown me out, I turned on the blender and whirred yolks, butter, and lemon juice into a perfect hollandaise and put it in a pan identical to the one Sally had handed to me. I saved hers just in case she was planning to discuss curdling, but when I handed her the newly made one, she just gave me that schoolgirl grin and said, "Nice work" and went back to the demonstration.”

ImprovisationReplacementCasey CostelloHollandaiseSally WoodsCurdled
Book:Last Bite
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“I've always loved funky rustic quilts more than elegant and maybe lovelier ones. You see the beauty of homeliness and rough patches in how they defy expectations of order and comfort. They have at the same time enormous solemnity and exuberance. They may be made of rags, torn clothes that don't at all go together, but they somehow can be muscular and pretty. The colors are often strong, with a lot of rhythm and discipline and a crazy sense of order. They're improvised, like jazz, where one thing leads to another, without any idea of exactly where the route will lead, except that it will refer to something else maybe already established, or about to be. Embedded in quilts and jazz are clues to escape and strength, sanctuary and warmth. the world is always going to be dangerous, and people get badly banged up, but how can there be more meaning than helping one another stand up in a wind and stay warm?”

Helping OthersImprovisationQuilt
Book:Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair by Anne Lamott
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“People with dull lives often think that their lives are dull by chance. In reality, everyone chooses more or less what kind of events will happen to them by their conscious patterns of blocking and yielding. A student objected to this view by saying, 'But you don't choose your life. Sometimes, you are at the mercy of people who push you around.' I said, 'Do you avoid such people?' 'Oh!' she said, 'I see what you mean.”

LifeAdventureImprovisationYielding
Book:Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
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“Trop de soin, aucune porte ouverte au hasard, effarouchent la poésie, déjà si difficile à prendre au piège. On l'apprivoise avec un peu d'imprevu. Des arbres où il n'y aura pas d'arbres, un objet qui change de place, un chapeau enlevé qui se retrouve sur la tête, bref une crevasse dans le mur et la poésie pénètre. Ceux qui s'aperçoivent de ces fautes d'rthographe sont ceux qui lisent mal et ne sont pas fascinés par l'histoire. Aucune importance.”

CinemaImprovisationPoesieHasard
Book:La Belle et la Bête
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“I can barely forgive myself for the time when I negged Billy from my improv troupe onstage. He said, “I have a gift for you,” and my first instinct was to say, “No you don’t.” The scene died right then and there. See what happens when I try to nurture something? I know it seems dramatic to relate destroying an improv scene to possibly destroying a child’s life, but improv and child rearing are not so different. Both are jobs that people volunteer for and complain about endlessly, and they bore everyone around them as they talk about the process.”

ImprovisationImprovImprov Comedy
Book:I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids
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“I like the idea that within the structure of the song, some kind of built-in improvisation keeps them fragile and in their moment, so that I'm not projecting so much, so that my perception of the song doesn't interfere with what its real body is. Sometimes it's like telling a story that I heard in passing, and I don't want it to become completely mine.”

WantKindIdeasRealSometimesMomentsStoriesBodySongHeardMinesPerceptionBuiltStructurePassingPassingsFragileInterfereImprovisation
Author:Ryan Adams
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