"My training was that you fill in the canvas where it needs colour and polishing. You start with the words on the first night and keep adding bits of business"
About this Quote
The key phrase is "bits of business", that wonderfully unglamorous term for the physical, often comic micro-actions that make a character legible: a glance, a fussing with a cuff, a beat too long before speaking. Moody's subtext is that truth onstage isn't just emotional sincerity; it's timing, texture, and repeatable mechanics. You "start with the words" because the text is the spine, but words alone are a skeleton. The life arrives through accumulation.
There's also a rehearsal-room philosophy embedded here: performance is iterative and communal. You don't arrive fully formed; you test, adjust, keep what plays, discard what doesn't. "First night" implies the pressure of live theater, where opening isn't an end point so much as the first draft in public. Moody makes a case for acting as ongoing revision - a refusal of perfectionism in favor of responsiveness, the kind that only comes from doing it again, under lights, with an audience breathing back.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Moody, Ron. (2026, January 16). My training was that you fill in the canvas where it needs colour and polishing. You start with the words on the first night and keep adding bits of business. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-training-was-that-you-fill-in-the-canvas-where-118840/
Chicago Style
Moody, Ron. "My training was that you fill in the canvas where it needs colour and polishing. You start with the words on the first night and keep adding bits of business." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-training-was-that-you-fill-in-the-canvas-where-118840/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My training was that you fill in the canvas where it needs colour and polishing. You start with the words on the first night and keep adding bits of business." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-training-was-that-you-fill-in-the-canvas-where-118840/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.





