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 ALDAI 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.
More Alan Alda Quotes
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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.
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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.
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What works for me is working out when it’s useful to use that anger.
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What I always wanted to get seen as was as a good actor, when it was the acting I was doing.
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[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.
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There’s plenty of money to be had. But you also lose your soul.
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It’s really clear to me that you can’t hang onto something longer than its time. Ideas lose certain freshness, ideas have a shelf life, and sometimes they have to be replaced by other ideas.
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I’m not trying to create some impression about myself. That doesn’t interest me.
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Be brave enough to live creatively . . . what you’ll discover will be wonderful: yourself.
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During the first day, curious at having outsiders among them, a long stream of inmates came over and talked with me.
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I’m an angry person, angrier than most people would imagine, I get flashes of anger.
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It tends to break out at unexpected times like a rare virus and mostly people with compassion and understanding are susceptible to it.
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My mother didn’t try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that.
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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.
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I guess in a world uncomfortable with uncertainty, an unbeliever must be an atheist, and possibly an infidel.
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Working on The West Wing was similar in many ways to my experience on M*A*S*H, because you had people willing to work late at night to get it just right.
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As an artist, as an actor, as a writer, you have to use what’s personal to you. You have to be personal about your work; otherwise, it doesn’t ring true.
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When I’m willing to let them change me, something happens between us that’s more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues.
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Testosterone Poisoning: … Until now it has been thought that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it.
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They wont all lie to you but a lot of them will. And itll be the easiest lie they ever had to tell to get your votes.
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For a while in my teens, I was sure I had it. It was about getting to heaven. If heaven existed and lasted forever, then a mere lifetime spent scrupulously following orders was a small investment for an infinite payoff.
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Nothing important was ever accomplished without chutzpah. Columbus had chutzpah. The signers of the Declaration of Independence had chutzpah.
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The good thing about being a hypocrite is that you get to keep your values.
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A taste; a painful longing. but the net is always too porous, and we are left with the sweet frustration of almost knowing, which is teasingly pleasurable.
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The best things said come last. People will talk for hours saying nothing much and then linger at the door with words that come with a rush from the heart.
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Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
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