The question

What is the best advice you have ever received?

Originally asked

Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions

A repeated rapid-fire prompt in Vogue's 73 Questions, verified in separate English- and Korean-language episodes.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Alan Dale

New Zealand actor

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I spent years trying to work out the secret of acting. I read all the books by the great teachers and got nowhere. They were so busy making it sound complex. I just couldn’t figure it out. Then one day my acting coach in LA told me to ‘think before you act’. It was so simple – when you are acting don’t just speak the words, but concentrate and think about what you are going to say all the time. It worked for me.

20 Questions With …, WhatsOnStage, 10 March 2008 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 38 →
Henry R. Kravis Financier; co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
My father tried to make me think twice. "Son, calm down," he said. "Stick it out."
Recorded KKR, 2024 source ↗
Ralph Fiennes Actor, director
Well, I remember Steven Spielberg was incredibly informed about lenses and technical things, and that made him very instinctive in terms of how he directed: “Do it quicker, faster, something’s not right.” He is totally spontaneous, he doesn’t try to measure his direction but it’s very true, it’s very direct and for that reason, very exciting.
Recorded Interview recorded at the Cairo Film Festival, 2018, The Talks, 16 January 2019 source ↗
Patricia Smith Poet; Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York
“What sound does that color make?” Yeah, that was a question of hers in fifth grade. And I was like, “Well, colors don’t have sound.” And eventually, she said, “You know red sounds different than blue.” And I, “Yeah, red sounds angry, blue sounds —” And so she was pushing me into, “Here’s your simile, here’s your metaphor. This is all you’re going to need. Run, my child.”
Recorded Pádraig Ó Tuama, On Being, 28 August 2023 source ↗
Frederick W. Smith Founder and long-serving chairman of FedEx Corporation
When I first met Sergeant Jackson I had grown a mustache and had taken up the affectation of smoking cigars, because I thought this made me look, you know, quite dashing and much older than my 22 years, or what have you. And the first thing that Sergeant Jackson did after I asked him to, in essence, take the insignia off, you know, just tell me straight up what I could do to improve my performance. And he told me, he said, “Well, the first thing, shave off that ridiculous mustache, and quite smoking the cigars — because you look absurd — and be yourself.” And I don’t think I ever forgot that. I don’t think I ever tried an affectation after that point in my life.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 23 May 1998 source ↗

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