Alan Quotes

We don't fight about music. We don't fight about artistic direction. The things like that we could fight about, we really don't. We are pretty lucky for that.

10.30 Newsnight: What Are The Chances Of World War Three Breaking Out After You Have Gone To Bed?

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.

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

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

I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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

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

I'm sure if the punishment fits the crime, or is more severe, you're going to start stamping out a lot of things that are going on in football.

I don't think it's that difficult to administer. I'm sure a sensible solution can be found.

Beer is sacred business, a mood-altering food substance that may have preserved the human species. To drink beer is to be human.

Beer is a gift from the goddesses, a soothing balm given our species to bring joy and comfort in compensation for the curse of self-awareness, the awful realization of our mortality

When you're a regular on a TV show, they give you more of a backstory, so with these recurring gigs, you have to make up your own backstory.

My wife says I'm much happier when I'm not a regular on a TV show.

I'm not a great shopper but I do buy a lot of books. I'm the publishers' friend - I buy a hundred books a year and read four.

A bambiraptor is a savage baby dear.

The principle that light can be in two places at the same time is absolutely extraordinary.

Writing allows me the time to travel and see the world, which is what I always wanted to do. I'd really like to have been Sir Richard Francis Burton, but it's the wrong century.

The storm hit with all the fury of a woman who’d been dieting for six months, only to discover she’d gained four pounds.

There's certainly more new SF available than when I started writing. That means there's also more bad SF available. Whether there is also more good is a matter for future historians of the field.

I try to challenge myself as much as possible, as often as possible.

I hear entire symphonies, oratorios, in my head, but I can't write a note.

Don't try to write to the trend of the moment.

I've been writing full-time since 1978.

There is nothing in art, in philosophy, or in politics to match the fervor of mutual cooperation among discordant bands of fanatics.

In loquaciousness lay insanity.

The Second Amendment has no place in modern society.