With a lot of films people are sitting on the outside looking in but I want the audience to get a bit more intimately involved with what's going on so that they maybe can experience it a little bit more intensely.

I think a lot comes from having the experience of doing stand-up comedy. It allows you to figure out the psychology of an audience what things are funny and not.

When I'm writing I'm constantly thinking about myself because it's the only experience I have to draw on. And I don't see an exact reflection of myself in every face in the audience but I know that my songs have validity to them and that's why the fans are there.

When I go to my live shows it's often a multigenerational audience a family bonding experience.

I think it's really really important to mix it up as an actor to try to get as much kind of varied experience as you can not only for your own personal growth as an actor but for the audience to keep them guessing about what you're going to do.

I know there are people who don't like their audience or like the experience of being recognized or celebrated but my audience has been very good - they don't bother me and when they do contact me it's usually on the nicest possible terms.

With 'Good Will Hunting ' Miramax made certain the recruited audience wasn't expecting to laugh at Robin Williams like they normally do. From my limited experience you can really blow test screenings by conducting them in the wrong way.

I prefer to think of the audience as a single living organism with which I am sharing a singular never-to-be-repeated experience.

In those days a concert was a personal experience. I wanted to be as close as possible to the audience and of course big stadiums didn't enable you to do that. It wasn't my style.

'Dreams From My Father' reveals more about Obama than is usually known about political leaders until after they're dead. Perhaps more than it intends it shows his mind working in real time sentence by sentence in what feels like a private audience with the reader.