Alan Alda Quotes
You can watch actors create their illusions, but if you don't see where they get the pigeons from, you don't really know how they're doing it.
Alan Alda
I know there's a creative side to artists to - pardon me - there's a creative side to scientists already, but there may be an artistic side, too, waiting to break free.
Alan Alda
Achingly funny as it was, Larry Gelbart's writing gave off sparks that turned a hard light on the way we are.
Alan Alda
We're highly social animals - I'm told by scientists that what makes us different from other animals is an acute social awareness, which is what has made us so successful.
Alan Alda
Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
Alan Alda
I don't really worry about the size of the part much any more. It's nice to have more time to work on the character, and to have big scenes to play. But if there's something playable there, and if it's interesting to do, then that's nice.
Alan Alda
It's too bad I'm not as wonderful a person as people say I am, because the world could use a few people like that.
Alan Alda
I used to be a Catholic. I left because I object to conversion by concussion. If you don't agree with what they teach, you get clobbered over the head until you do. All that does is change the shape of the head.
Alan Alda
I think it's important for scientists to speak in their own voices and not just be mediated by journalists or others speaking for them.
Alan Alda
I come armed with a really good ignorance. I don't strive toward ignorance. I come by it naturally.
Alan Alda
When I am at a dinner table, I love to ask everybody, 'How long do you think our species might last?' I've read that the average age of a species, of any species, is about two million years. Is it possible we can have an average life span as a species? And do you picture us two million years more or a million and a half years, or 5,000?
Alan Alda
When I was in high school, I fell under the spell of that crazy idea that if you're interested in the arts, you can't be interested in science.
Alan Alda
When does she do all this thinking? We're together all the time but she thinks deeply about things and with feeling and she can remember the facts. We've been married 48 years.
Alan Alda
I think most people are interested in our origins; once we understand, it might be easier to become the people we'd like to be. Or, better, become the people we think we already are.
Alan Alda
It's a funny feeling to work with people who you consider your colleagues and to realize that they actually are young enough to be your children.
Alan Alda
When I was about ten years old, I gave my teacher an April Fool's sandwich, which had a dead goldfish in it.
Alan Alda
You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.
Alan Alda
What is beauty, anyway? It's more than something pleasant looking. If it doesn't stop us in our tracks and make us unable to move for a moment, unable to put into words what's closing off the breath in our throats, then maybe it's pretty, but it probably isn't beauty.
Alan Alda
The hardest thing for me about making movies, and that included 'M*A*S*H' because it was made like a movie, was starting and stopping.
Alan Alda
I'm condemned by some inner compulsion to think about the daily rituals of my life. I have a low grade fever for improving myself in many ways, including everyday tasks.
Alan Alda
There is a wonderful feeling of power when you're a director, but I don't think I need that, and I'm OK without it.
Alan Alda
It's very important for us to see that science is done by people, not just brains but whole human beings, and sometimes at great cost.
Alan Alda
What I always wanted to get seen as was as a good actor, when it was the acting I was doing. When I'm writing, I want to try to be seen as a good writer.
Alan Alda
On the stage, the characters express themselves more through words than images. So the arguments of the characters and the tension between characters - words have to be used to express that, and I love that about theater.
Alan Alda
Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.
Alan Alda
I used to not want to die in any way but in my sleep when I was a young man. I'd like to die awake now, if possible, with people around me who love me.
Alan Alda
I was brought up as a Catholic, and I'm no longer a Catholic. I don't talk about my beliefs too much in public probably because I feel very strongly that it's something personal - more than personal, it's private.
Alan Alda
In 2003, I almost died of an intestinal blockage when I was on a mountain in Chile, filming a segment for 'Scientific American Frontiers.'
Alan Alda
It's really clear to me that you can't hang onto something longer than its time. Ideas lose certain freshness, ideas have a shelf life, and sometimes they have to be replaced by other ideas.
Alan Alda
The thing is when you're... well-enough known, you get asked to speak places, and they don't really think about whether or not you're qualified. They just want somebody that will be a drawing card for the audience. So it's up to you to decide whether or not it's foolish to get up and speak to these people.
Alan Alda
You know what my earliest memories are? Going from one burlesque town to another. My father was in burlesque.
Alan Alda