Leslie Odom, Jr. Quotes
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There's this Frank Wildhorn tune 'Sarah' - it's not a widely known tune, but it's my favorite song to sing.
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I grew up in Philadelphia in a time where we took it for granted that we were supposed to be young and gifted and black. It was a culture of excellence - and all my friends were more talented than I was.
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I don't have any control over the offers that are going to come to me or not come to me. But I can't go backward, and so that's what's tricky.
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Sometimes I think of creativity or art as this well that we all draw from.
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Until you make a name for yourself, they're like, 'Be a little more Denzel,' 'Be a little more Wesley Snipes.'
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I've realized along the way that a lot of things that I do as a performer are about waiting for somebody to write something for me or develop something for me, but music, music was the thing that I don't have to wait for anybody's permission to do.
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We don't get to get swept up, because we have to start over every day at 8 o'clock.
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That was the bat signal for me - 'Rent' changed my life. It took me years before I got beyond that show.
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I've been in a long-term relationship, and I'll tell you, it's never boring! People trying to merge their lives together always run into challenges.
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I remember Ella Fitzgerald sort of coming into my life like a bolt of lightning - like, what is that? It was one of the purest examples of God in art that I'd ever seen.
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My dad was always in sales. My mom had a heart for the ages. Worked in recreation, doing rehabilitation in nursing homes. Very nice, practical folks who were very proud of me but had no inclination toward the stage in any way.
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I'm addicted to growth.
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Oh, Alexander Hamilton fell short of his best self every now and again, and he still managed to do these wonderful things - well, so do I. So what am I capable of?
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I have a great foundation, a great training foundation. But it took me a long time to let the training go.
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I'm the nap champion.
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You must be an artist and a citizen of the world. You must speak to this stuff that's happening. You must do what you can to shine a light on it, help people through it.
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I have to remind myself that it may never be this good again.
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I don't want to leave anything offstage.
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We want to pull out songs from the American song book, and we want to make them palatable for a modern audience.
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I remember when I was in 'Rent,' Daphne Rubin-Vega threw a party. At the time, she had a loft in TriBeCa, and the elevator opened right into her apartment. I was like, 'I've never seen anything like that.' I didn't know it was possible.
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When I step on the stage and sing 'Wait for It,' I'm singing that for everybody. I don't mean I'm singing it for them; I mean, you are their voice.
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You gotta prove yourself. I'm not above that. I will never be above that. Bring it!
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I haven't gotten hundreds of jobs that I've auditioned for.
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You can't judge the people that you play anyway; you leave that for somebody else to do.