[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[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 ALDAThe 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.
ALAN ALDAI have thought about punching people out. Sometimes, I’ve thought, ‘Why don’t I just act on that impulse?’ But then, I’ve never hit anybody in anger. Hey! I’ve never hit anybody for fun.
ALAN ALDAFor 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.
ALAN ALDAI found I wasn’t asking good enough questions because I assumed I knew something.
ALAN ALDAA really great actor, in a lucky performance, can transform himself or herself. I’ve seen actors do that.
ALAN ALDAIt’s not an epitaph. I felt I could look back at my life and get a good story out of it. It’s a picture of somebody trying to figure things out.
ALAN ALDAI guess in a world uncomfortable with uncertainty, an unbeliever must be an atheist, and possibly an infidel.
ALAN ALDAMy relationship with science is as someone who’s curious and hungry to know, hungry to understand. So all I have to offer is my ignorance and my curiosity, which is a good combination, as long as they come together.
ALAN ALDAIf 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 ALDAI 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 ALDAMy mother didn’t try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that.
ALAN ALDAI would box them into a corner with a badly formed question, and they didn’t know how to get out of it. Now, I let them take me through it step by step, and I listen.
ALAN ALDAWhen I’m willing to let them change me, something happens between us that’s more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues.
ALAN ALDADon’t ever aim doubt at yourself. Laugh at yourself, but don’t doubt yourself.
ALAN ALDAI was brought up as a Catholic, and I’m no longer a Catholic.
ALAN ALDA