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I try to find out what there is in the character that in a way, you can't put into words. If I could put it into words, then it wouldn't be a performance. And if I do put it into words, as I play it, I start to get boxed in by those words.

Alan Alda

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Alan Alda
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: January 28
Actor
Film Actor
Film Director
Podcaster
Screenwriter
Television Actor
Television Director
Television Presenter
Writer
Manhattan borough
New York City
Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo
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Play
Boxed
Trying
Performance
Way
Performances
Wouldn
Start
Words
Character

More quotes by Alan Alda

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You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.
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There are two things that I get a lot of pleasure from in my life, and that is, doing what I know how to do well - that really makes me happy. The other one, and probably an equal pleasure, is finding out how I can be helpful and then really being helpful.
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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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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
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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
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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
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Whenever you wonder about yourself, look up at the stars swirling around in the heavens and just realize how tiny and puny they are. They're supposed to be gigantic explosions and they're just these insignificant little dots. If you step back from things far enough you realize how important and powerful you are.
Alan Alda
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We're highly social animals - I'm told by scientists that what makes us different from other animals is an acute social awareness, which is what has made us so successful.
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Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you.
Alan Alda
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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.
Alan Alda
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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. One day, though, I realized I was no longer a believer, and realizing that, I couldn't go back.
Alan Alda
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Awards can give you a tremendous amount of encouragement to keep getting better, no matter how young or old you are.
Alan Alda
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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
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The good thing about being a hypocrite is that you get to keep your values.
Alan Alda
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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
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My 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 Alda
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It's too bad I'm not as wonderful a person as people say I am, because the world could use a few people like that.
Alan Alda
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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
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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
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Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.
Alan Alda