Brian Stokes Mitchell

“I love the theater, and I just don't love television like that.”

“That's the magic of art and the magic of theatre: it has the power to transform an audience, an individual, or en masse, to transform them and give them an epiphanal experience that changes their life, opens their hearts and their minds and the way they think.”

“I like to sing the songs people love, like 'Impossible Dream.'”

“I love seeing the stars, and I love being around my friends and family.”

“I think the Oscar is the big money award; that means you've made it in a money sense. The Tony has always represented - to me, and most actors that I've talked to - an artistic award. It means you're an artist and not just a popular performer.”

“I started out on the stage, then I had a great career in television for quite a few years. The good news about a TV series is that they give you a certain amount of fame and money. The bad news is that you're in people's living rooms every week and get associated with a particular character.”

“Cabaret presents different challenges, as it is all on me. I love having the freedom to say anything you want - do anything you want. It is a lot of responsibility, and if it works, you get all the kudos, and if not - all the blame.”

“There is a built-in appreciation for music that is so much a part of the LDS culture. Utahns know that music can be divine and can touch a person's spirit in a unique way.”

“People who are artists professionally are not artists because they want to be artists; they have to be artists. They're compelled to get that creativity out and to share that with others.”

“Music, for me, is the most sacred of the arts. I say that because music communicates in a way that no other art form can. All great art has a spirit that we recognize and appreciate, but music goes directly to your heart.”

“Variety is the key to not being bored.”

“I hate those vacuous musicals, the happy-happy, 'Let's have a good time' shows.”

“I was practically raised with Christmas music.”

“I like to capture the spirit of what the writers intended but find my own nuances. That comes from jazz - the invention and freeness within a structure.”

“I studied arranging and orchestration a number of years ago, so I have a home studio and arrange about three-fourths of my songs on the computer. Since writing orchestration is tedious, I often put an arrangement on the keyboard and let someone better-qualified finish it.”

“The first audition I did was for 'Trapper John, M.D.' I was surprised to get the part, and then to have it last for seven years was a bonus.”

“You lose more than you win in life, and that's OK. That's the nature of life.”

“I like being different people.”

“People in the performing arts have a lot of other skills they don't realize they can utilize, and part of what the Actors Fund program is there to do is wake their head up to realize there are other things they can do.”

“'Ragtime' is about how we get through ugliness, how we talk together, work together, get through it together.”