Alan Alda Quotes & Sayings

Aren't we lucky to be us? — Alan Alda

Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart. — Alan Alda

What heartens me is to see '30 Rock' on the air. It makes me laugh from my gut, which I really like to do. — 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

Maybe God is the ultimate bully who teases us with life, then pulls it out of reach. Maybe there's nothing I can do but let life curl up and disappear like an old photograph.
Or maybe I can get it back. Maybe imagination gets it back. Perhaps play lets it breath again. — Alan Alda

At times 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

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

The difference between listening and pretending to listen, I discovered, is enormous. One is fluid, the other is rigid. One is alive, the other is stuffed. Eventually, I found a radical way of thinking about listening. Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. When I'm willing to let them change me, something happens between us that's more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues. — Alan Alda

So that's it. I've told you everything I know. Think clearly and think for yourself. Learn to use language to express those thoughts. Love somebody with all your heart. And with everyone, whether you love them or not, find out if you can be helpful. But really, it's even simpler than that. After all this time, and all these talks in public and in private, I think I get it now. If I were taking my friend Arnold's suggestion and spoke from my deathbed, I think I know what I'd say. I see now that I had my meaning all along, I just had to notice it. The meaning of life ... is life. Not noticing life is what's meaningless, even down to the last second. — Alan Alda

When I started out as an actor, I thought, Here's what I have to say; how shall I say it? I began to understand that what I do in the scene is not as important as what happens between me and the other person. And listening is what lets it happen. It's almost always the other person who causes you to say what you say next. You don't have to figure out how you'll say it. You have to listen so simply, so innocently, that the other person brings about a change in you that makes you say it and informs the way you say it. — 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

After a while I started to think of that as an image of something that went a lot deeper than the dead dog, which is you can't bring back anything to life. — Alan Alda

You know what my earliest memories are? Going from one burlesque town to another. My father was in burlesque. — Alan Alda

Awards shows mainly publicize the people giving the awards. — Alan Alda

As I am becoming older, the only thing that speeds up is time. — 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

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

I must have interviewed 600 or 700 scientists all around the world. — Alan Alda

Raquel Welch, whom I've met but never kissed, once called the brain an erogenous zone. — Alan Alda

If scientists can't communicate with the public, with policy makers, with one another, the future is going to be held back. We're not going to have the future that we could have. — Alan Alda

I really don't like plays or movies that service propaganda. — Alan Alda

The President never intends to get into any kind of war situation. He gets carried away by events. — Alan Alda

I used to be an amateur inventor when I was a kid; I'm always inventing something. — Alan Alda

What's funny is that you can think you really value your life until you almost lose it. — Alan Alda

We need to be more conversant with it because science is in our lives. It's in everything. It's in the food we eat. It's in the air we breathe. It's everywhere. — 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. Not as somebody with a particular idea to sell, or something like that. — Alan Alda

I'm very interested in the improvisation because one of the things I do is to help train scientists to communicate in a better way and more personal way when they're making a presentation, and I use improvisation to do that. — Alan Alda

Be brave enough to live creatively. — Alan Alda

I would like to know that when I read the paper in the morning, it's telling me something that actually happened, and I think the vast majority of journalists want the same thing. — 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

If scientists could communicate more in their own voices - in a familiar tone, with a less specialized vocabulary - would a wide range of people understand them better? Would their work be better understood by the general public, policy-makers, funders, and, even in some cases, other scientists? — Alan Alda

Don't be upset that it takes a long, long time to find wisdom because nobody knows where wisdom can be found. It tends to break out at unexpected times like a rare virus and mostly people with compassion and understanding are susceptible to it. — 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've never tried to manipulate my image. — Alan Alda

How can I be so captured by my own imagination that I can truly connect both to the person I'm playing and to the person I'm playing with ...
I didn't know it, but what I was really looking for was compassion. Not consciously, of course. I didn't consciously want to become compassionate. Who in his right mind would want to give up his place at the center of the universe. Compassion is scary. If you open up too much to people, they have power over you and make you do things for them. Better to keep them at a distance, keep them on the other side of the footlights. Learn to juggle - learn to fall down in funny ways. Keep them as an audience where you can be in control. Keep the curtain up, keep the play going. It holds off judgment. See me up here? You love me, right? I'm the best, right? But if I wanted really to act, I was going to have to find the doorway to compassion ... — Alan Alda

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

All I've ever tried to do is play real people. — Alan Alda

Everybody's on their toes and focused on what we're about to do, and then there's this moment where you relax because you see that everybody is there to do the best that they can. Everyone opens up to one another right away. That's a terrific thing. I love that about actors. They know how personal this job is. — Alan Alda

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

Life itself was an improvisation in which I was going to have to deal with what came to me and not think about what should have come. — Alan Alda

I had always wondered why people wanted to be rich and famous. If you could be rich and anonymous, that would be fun. To be famous and not rich, the way we were, was the least fun. It takes time and effort to be famous, and if they offer you fame without the money, don't take it. It's a scam. — Alan Alda

Life is meaningless unless you bring meaning to it; ... it is up to us to create our own existence. Unless you do something, unless you make something it's as though you aren't there. — Alan Alda

I don't miss directing at all, and I don't miss screenwriting either because somebody's always telling you to do something different. — Alan Alda

I feel like every time a door is opened by science, suddenly there are a hundred doors that need to get opened. That's what makes it an everlasting, interesting experience to go through. — Alan Alda

If a rattlesnake thinks he can swallow a mouse, he probably can. Don't assume you think like a snake unless you are one. — Alan Alda

If you don't listen deeply, the connection won't take place ... [You have to be] willing to be changed by the person you're listening to, where you're not just waiting for a pause so you can say your thing, but you're actually letting them have an effect on you if they can. — Alan Alda

Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. — Alan Alda

The good thing about being a hypocrite is that you get to keep your values. — Alan Alda

I wouldn't live in California. All that sun makes you sterile. — Alan Alda

Awards can give you a tremendous amount of encouragement to keep getting better, no matter how young or old you are. — Alan Alda

'Never Have Your Dog Stuffed' is really advice to myself, a reminder to myself not to avoid change or uncertainty, but to go with it, to surf into change. — 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

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

The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. 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 will be yourself. — Alan Alda

Anesthetized by youth, I missed it. — Alan Alda

The idea that the brain is not fully formed until you are almost 30 years old has already been introduced, and the Supreme Court already has based two rulings on it. — 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

Communication doesn't take place because you tell somebody something. It takes place when you observe them closely and track their ability to follow you. Like — 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

Well into the series .. I had written a show in which Margaret Houlihan comes into my tent and she says: 'how dare you grate that thing before me?' .. where there is an athletic supporter, jockstrap .. the network said you cannot name it, you cannot show it, you cannot even see a piece of white cloth underwear that a man wears .. but every week for several years we have never been censored seeing ladies bras, panties, silk stockings .. I get hit in the face with these things .. I walk through cloth lines .. get tangled up with underwear but because it came in contact with women's erogenous zones it was ok, but not men's! .. really interesting! that was somehow filthy and degrading to do that! And that was after, when we didn't have much censorship over us! — Alan Alda

I'm in the real world, some people try to steal from me, and I stop them, frequently, take them to court. I love a good lawsuit. It's fun. — Alan Alda

Usually, comedy shows only influence other comedy shows. 'M*A*S*H' is one of the few comedies that influenced dramatic shows as well. — Alan Alda

My father sang well, and he was a handsome man. When he walked down the street, people sometimes mistook him for Cary Grant and asked for his autograph. — Alan Alda

I've played a murderer, so certainly I think I can play a Republican. — Alan Alda

I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even 'hari-kari' if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun! — Alan Alda

I never thought about my image. It interests me that there are people who do, that they seem to be methodical about it. Maybe things would have gone differently for me in some ways if I had. — Alan Alda

Here's my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others, but keep after them until they're fair with you. — Alan Alda

It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It's only necessary to be rich. — Alan Alda

If I can't get the girl, at least give me more money. — Alan Alda

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

I'm an angry person, angrier than most people would imagine, I get flashes of anger. What works for me is working out when it's useful to use that anger. — Alan Alda

Almost everybody that's well-known gets tagged with a nickname. — Alan Alda

The one thing I think I've noticed about shows that are supposed to be funny on television is that they've sort of become routinized, so there's an awful lot of mannerisms and joke lines that are sort of there to trigger laughter, rather than give actors a chance to play a moment. — Alan Alda

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won't come in. If you challenge your own, you won't be so quick to accept the unchallenged assumptions of others. You'll be a lot less likely to be caught up in bias or prejudice or be influenced by people who ask you to hand over your brains, your soul or your money because they have everything all figured out for you. — Alan Alda

War is war and Hell is hell, and if you ask me, War is a lot worse. — Alan Alda

When I studied how to think in school, I was taught that the first rule of logic was that a thing cannot both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect. That last note, "in the same respect," says a lot. As soon as you change the frame of reference, you've changed the truthiness of a once immutable fact. — Alan Alda

Life is great-I wouldn't know what I'd do without it. — Alan Alda

Anyone I know who's almost died has come out of it, at least for a while, looking at things differently. — Alan Alda

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been. — 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

Achingly funny as it was, Larry Gelbart's writing gave off sparks that turned a hard light on the way we are. — Alan Alda

What then are doing if not creating a better place together? I think, for me the key has to be, what do I want to create? What is it I want to leave behind? — Alan Alda

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

Republicans are as capable of coming up with great ideas and moving this country along as anyone - they just don't do it. — Alan Alda

I sat next to a young woman on a plane once who bombarded me for five hours with how she had decided to be born again and so should I. I told her I was glad for her, but I hadn't used up being born the first time. — Alan Alda

I read science, because to me, that's extremely exciting. It's like a great detective story, and it's happening right in front of us. — Alan Alda

When your kids turn 13, an alien being invades their bodies and doesn't leave until they're 20. — Alan Alda

Whenever I think of how much pleasure I have interviewing scientists, I remember that they're having the real fun in actually being able to do the science. — 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

Loneliness is everything it's cracked up to be. — 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

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

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

During the first day, curious at having outsiders among them, a long stream of inmates came over and talked with me. Remarkably, according to what they told me, nearly every inmate in the prison didn't do it. Several thousand people had been locked up unjustly and, by an incredible coincidence, all in the same prison.
On the other hand, they knew an awful lot about how to knife somebody. — Alan Alda

I had never really wanted to be famous. Everyone is supposed to want to be rich and famous, but as a boy I never knew what rich was, and the first view I had of famous made me leery. — 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

I've been nominated twice before as actor in a leading part. Now I'm nominated as actor in a supporting part. If I don't win, I'll just wait until I'm nominated for being in the theater during the show. Do they have one like that? — Alan Alda

Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in. — Alan Alda

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

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