Oral interpretation utilizes the self-referencing qualities of language and literature which involves the interpreter as both actor and reader. By "self-referencing" is meant the capacity language has to express not only literal meaning but also, at the same time, the process of realization and of attitudinizing toward this meaning. Self-reference enable language to express more than one meaning and even contradictory meanings using the same word symbols. Literature, self-referentially, draws life from the dual tension between being ourselves and becoming someone else. The interpreter may use language self-referentially by altering denotative meaning by tonal connotation. He uses literature self-referentially through his unique self's identifying with the persona he portrays dramatically. The oral interpretation performance also provides a third self-reference, existence in an art experience and as a part of the audience at the same time. Two implications which may be drawn from this concept of self-reference for interpretation performance are (1) that the actor/reader dichotomy is dependent on the unique self-reference of the interpreter and (2) that the added dimension of empathy (intellectual detachment) is made possible by self-reference. (HOD)