Alan Arkin Quotes

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Alan Arkin

Profession : Actor

Birth : March 26, 1934

I used to watch the world as if it was a performance and I would realize that certain things that people did moved me, and certain things didn't move me, and I tried to analyze, even at that age, six and seven and eight, why I was moved by certain things they did.

Alan Arkin

I want to feel like I'm doing something creative and trying different things, putting different hats on and playing. I don't know what's the point otherwise; otherwise, it's just a job. You punch a time clock.

Alan Arkin

I would like to have a movie under my own control sometime, and see what could be done with it. Who knows? Maybe Hollywood will make an improvisational movie someday.

Alan Arkin

I love working if it's with people who are capable of having a good time. People with a little bit of enjoyment of what they do. If it's enormous pressure, and people feel that their lives are at stake, then it's agony. So I try to pick projects where I feel like I'm going to avoid those traps.

Alan Arkin

I wanted to make it in New York. I thought if I went out to the Midwest, I'd be burying myself. But I was wrong.

Alan Arkin

I don't believe in competitions between artists. This is insane. Who has the authority to say someone is better?

Alan Arkin

I had a hard time treating my field as if it's horse racing, putting actors in competition against each other. I see how the industry and the studios feel it's important, but I don't really have a feeling for being in competition. I want to feel sympathetic and close to others, not opposed to them.

Alan Arkin

Education does not mean jamming information into somebody's head. Rather, it's that ancient idea that all knowledge is within us; to teach is to help somebody pull it out of themselves.

Alan Arkin

I don't know what I'm proudest of. The fact that my kids still talk to me.

Alan Arkin

NI love watching science fiction because I feel like when it's done well, it's not just monsters, but philosophy. Really good science fiction like, '2001,' for example, or the first 'Matrix.' But it takes someone who's got a brain and thinks in order to do really good science fiction.

Alan Arkin

I never had a better role than I had in 'Little Miss Sunshine.' That was one of my favorite roles ever.

Alan Arkin

I've always been an improviser. I was one before I knew even what the word was... And acting, that I've been doing since I was 5.

Alan Arkin