Alan Alda quotes - page 3

Alan Alda is an American actor, director, and writer, best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce on the television series M*A*S*H. His performances have earned him numerous awards and critical acclaim across television, film, and theater. He is also recognized for his work in science communication and education. Here are 71 of his quotes:

I have a final word of advice to our students. If you work very, very hard, this is the kind of actor, writer and director you may turn out to be, and if you work extra hard, this is the kind of person you may turn out to be. (Alan Alda)

Jean Paul Sartre says in "No Exit" that hell is other people. Well, our task in life is to make it heaven. Or at least earth.

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

Loneliness is everything it's cracked up to be.

Alan Alda

I've sat looking down into a volcano that could blow at any moment; I've helped catch a shark and several rattlesnakes; I let a tarantula walk across my hand, and I ate rat soup.

Alan Alda

You can't be aware of everything. You'd fall down the stairs if you were aware of every intricate thing involved in going down stairs.

Alan Alda

Backstage life is terrific training for an actor, seeing shows from the wings.

Alan Alda

If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.

Alan Alda

My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six.

Alan Alda

You don't put statistics on trial, you put individuals on trial.

Alan Alda

I'm greedy for that satisfaction of doing something hard and knowing that, even though I was afraid I couldn't do it, that somehow I can deliver. (Alan Alda)

I was a child, and my mother was psychotic. She loved me, but I didn't really feel I had a mother. And when you live with somebody who is paranoid and thinks you're trying to kill them all the time, you tend to feel a little betrayed.

Alan Alda

Why would you give money to somebody whose work you don't understand?

Alan Alda

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.

Alan Alda

I love oatmeal. To me, it's not boring. I agree that ordinary oatmeal is very boring, but not the steel-cut Irish kind - the kind that pops in your mouth when you bite into it in little glorious bursts like a sort of gummy champagne.

Alan Alda

In the midst of the sense of tragedy or loss, sometimes laughter is not only healing, it's a way of experiencing the person that you've lost again.

Alan Alda

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

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 was always interested in figuring things out. I'd do experiments, like combining things I found around the house to see what would happen if I put them together.

Alan Alda

For me, I find that even though I've accomplished a few things in my life, looking back on accomplishments doesn't give me a sense of satisfaction.

Alan Alda

Originality is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe. You can't take a taxi. (Alan Alda)

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Alan Alda

Alan Alda - Image

Photo: Bridget Laudien, CC BY-SA 3.0

Occupation: American Actor
Born: January 28, 1936
Quotes count: 71
Wikipedia: Alan Alda

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