Alan Quotes

And I think belief is one of those things that comes to people in their own way. And just because I believe in something doesn't mean I think that you should.

Some of the greatest things, as I understand, they have come about by serendipity, the greatest discoveries

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.

There's plenty of money to be had. But you also lose your soul.

Being mystified is a good beginning, because you won't do what you've done before.

I play tennis non-obsessively. I seem to beat people I play a lot or half the time, so I guess I gravitate to people who are as bad as I am.

The one hour live debate in the West Wing that we did was one of the most exciting times for me on stage or on camera, because anything could go wrong.

I gotta keep busy. I'm not happy unless I'm working on two, three things.

Things are never going to turn out how you think they will.

All I can say is if the part doesn't delight me in some way, or I can't feel any compassion for it, I just can't do it.

My favorite kind of film is serious comedy. Comedy with serious underpinning.

I've always considered myself an actor, but I wasn't making a living as an actor.

I don't think it does the audience any good to know what I do to prepare. It keeps it more of a surprise. I don't feel like it has to be a mystery.

There's a familiarity that sometimes shocks and annoys the hell out of me. People want a relationship with you that they haven't earned.

Creativity means learning where the rules exist, and then breaking them! Saying, "It's better this way." But you have to know the rules in order to break them with any grace.

Two-thirds of American movies are extensions of commercials -- they tell you how to feel and they tell you how to think -- rather than letting you figure it out on your own.

Every physicist knows that things connect with each other. To isolate things is not the way the universe works - winning best actor is arbitrary.

If I'm doing a fake movie, it's gonna be a fake hit.

I played guitar. I've always considered myself an actor, but I wasn't making a living as an actor. So I was in a couple of folk groups that managed to keep me in underwear and burritos.

You know what Andy Warhol's sole contribution to this country has been? He made Campbell's Soup a household word.

[The business is] more corporate and more formulaic and less experiential.

In a world where we are forced to conform to society, it is necessary to have personal chaos

We're coming off a quarter here that was in-line with our expectations, but much lower at WPZ due to Geismar's extended outage and a continued heavy capital investing period all as was expected.

We may not know who is craft beer but we sure as hell will know what is craft beer by who isn't.

I Love, Therefore I Am

A natural disaster in one American city is a natural disaster in every American city, including Fresno and, for that matter, every city and small town in the San Joaquin Valley.

We must do more to protect our neighborhoods and give integrity to our community plans.

Plays by Alan Ayckbourn have been attracting larger audiences in the regional theatres than those of Shakespeare.

I'm not a believer in luck, but I do believe you need it.

Not everything is going to be successful. To strive for that is really naive. You just do the best you can do.

I really love storytelling, and I love the stories as they reveal themselves. It's an incredibly nourishing process; it's probably the closest I come to having a religion.

I will say that the environment I grew up in was not the most progressive.

Happy relationships are boring. We all want them in our own life. But I don't want to watch them on TV.

I'd seen 'Interview with A Vampire' and saw Dracula movies growing up, but I never thought, 'I love vampires; I have to do a show about vampires.'

Well, here's the thing with relationships on 'True Blood': Once they happen then you have to throw a monkey-wrench into them, because to have people be happy is not that exciting.

Life is too mysterious to try to map it out. I've certainly lived long enough to know it will take you places you never thought it would take you - and some of those places are kind of wonderful.

A lot of times, the choice of the right song will save a scene. Or there will be a scene that's a little flat and you put in the right song and somehow it just comes alive.

Ultimately, physical resemblance isn't as important as whether this person can bring this character to life in a way that's compelling and makes me care about what happens to them.

Beauty is in the strangest places. A piece of garbage floating in the wind. And that beauty exists in America. It exists everywhere. You have to develop an eye for it and be able to see it.

I'm aware of 'Twilight,' but I've never seen the movies or read any of the books. Frankly, the story leaves me cold - why do a vampire story about abstinence?

The ego is kind of a big, unwieldy thing. It's not so easily tamed or subdued.

The important thing is that he shook hands with us over the phone.

There are times when I am directing, and there are a couple of moments I didn't get the way I wanted, but I know I still have other angles to shoot and I have to be done by noon; I move on.

I think vampires are a timeless powerful archetype that can tap into people's psyches.

I think the world is a place for oddballs and freaks. I'm only interested in oddballs and freaks as characters.

I think sexuality is a window into someone's soul.

I am a little suspicious of industry paradigms. I feel like so many movies and TV shows feel so familiar because of over-reliance on these paradigms.

Death is a companion for all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we're aware of it or not, and it's not necessarily a terrible thing.

Vampires are total sexual metaphors; there's just no way around that.

Obviously death is a theme I'm fascinated by.