Quotes by Alan Alda

About Alan Alda:

Alan Alda is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his starring roles as Captain Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H and Arnold Vinick in The West Wing, and his supporting role in the 2004 film The Aviator as U.S. Senator Owen Brewster, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University and a founder and member of the advisory board of the university's Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and the Future of Life Institute. He serves on the board of the World Science Festival and is a judge for Math-O-Vision.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

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 really don't like plays or movies that service propaganda.

Alan Alda

The hardest thing for me about making movies, and that included 'M*A*S*H' because it was made like a movie, was starting and stopping.

Alan Alda

My background is on the stage, so when I'd write movies, they'd be a lot like plays.

Alan Alda

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

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

Alan Alda

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.

Alan Alda

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

Alan Alda

Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.

Alan Alda

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

Alan Alda

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

Alan Alda

M*A*S*H' was a collection of people, in front of and behind the cameras, that really clicked.

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

I have a strong preference for being alive.

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

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

Alan Alda

Blind dates are treacherous. You don't know who this person is. You wonder, 'Should I call my grandma during coffee to get out of this?'

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

I know there's a creative side to artists to - pardon me - there's a creative side to scientists already, but there may be an artistic side, too, waiting to break free.

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

Author Bio

  • NameAlan Alda
  • DescriptionActor and United States Army officer
  • BornJanuary 28, 1936
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionActor; Television Actor; Film Actor; Film Director; Screenwriter; Writer
  • AwardsDirectors Guild Of America Award