Alan Cumming Quotes

My mum always told me I was precious, while my dad always told me I was worthless. I think that's a good grounding for a balanced life.

Actually I like working kind of fast, because if you got it, why bother doing it over and over?

Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.

It's really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.

Be who you like as long as you mean it.

I like working on things that are very different and that involve different disguises.

You'll see Dame Judi Dench in a Bond film, in Shakespeare and then starring in her own sitcom. You never see that here with Meryl Streep.

I love a film where I get squished by two dumpsters or I fly through the air.

It's actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly you'll be okay.

Finally, the scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable.

I had to be a grown-up when I should have been a little boy, and now that I'm a grown-up my little-boyness has exploded out of me. I've lived my life backwards.

I think people deny themselves by putting themselves into categories.

Kids are more genuine. When they come up and want to talk to you, they don't have an agenda. It's more endearing and less piercing to your aura.

I'm not a fan of Twitter.

I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare.

For example, Americans seem reluctant to take on Shakespeare because you don't think you're very good at it - which is rubbish. You're missing out here.

I don't feel I'm a compulsive person. I multitask. I'm really well-organised, and I have lots of people to help me.

It is not hard to feel like an outsider. I think we have all felt like that at one time or another.

I'm Scottish first, and it's odd to hear that I'm a Scottish-American.

Nowadays people don't know how to handle it if all the ends aren't tied up and they're not told what to think in films. And if they're challenged, they think it's something wrong with the film.

Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you've done more dramatic projects or you're classically trained.

I have no regrets in my life even the crazy things I've been in. It all made me the I am today and I wouldn't change anything. I'm happy with who I am!

So the experts think we could have an AIDS-free generation in Africa by 2015, even if the mothers are positive.

When there's an adult person who's scaring you, you grow up pretty quickly.

You do get really exhausted doing films. You work such long hours, and after a while, things can get out of perspective, just like if anyone's tired, things get on top of them.

I was so scared of going back to the theatre after Hamlet. I didn't know if I'd do a play again because I was afraid of the power of it.

With Urban Secrets, I just really liked the idea of wandering around chatting to people.

It's exciting to be with really, really good people. Some people make you feel like you've got to up your game. Working with good people is always good.

You should *have* an experience; it shouldn't just *be* an experience.

Once in a while it's good to challenge yourself in a way that's really daunting.

Most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes.

I don't avoid anyone but I always think some people hate me.

Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.

Actors aren't stupid, mostly, and if there's a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director's going for, if you're aware of that too, you can do things to help that.

Performing a one-man Macbeth feels like the greatest challenge.

A sweaty Macbeth with blood on his arms coming in fresh from the battle doesn't interest me.

When you're on TV, you come into people's homes. In theater and film, they go to you - to the temple of the cinema or theater. And it's very different.

My feeling about work is it's much more about the experience of doing it than the end product. Sometimes things that are really great and make lots of money are miserable to make, and vice versa.

I'm quite good, though I say it myself, at making strangers feel at ease.

In my first year at drama school, I did this kids' show called 'Let's See.

Macbeth was the first play I ever read.

He ... knew, in that instant, that his life would not be an easy one-he was different, he looked different, he thought differently.

I like the tragedies way more than the comedies because they're so universal.

And we have the same colour eyes. When I look into his, I feel I'm looking into myself.