Alan Ball Quotes
As a writer, it's fun to create. And once you get into a long-running show with very established characters and a very established tone and format, after a while it's a really great job, but that's what it is - a job.
Quotes to Explore
-
'Downton' is one of the best jobs in the world, and I'm looking forward to the next series for Maggie Smith's wicked sense of humour.
-
I remember having to take detours around the Hollywood sign to avoid having to see this grotesque poster of myself on Sunset Boulevard.
-
Service to others seems the only intelligent choice for the use of wealth.
-
Like the old Italian saying goes, 'It ain't rocket surgery.'
-
I never wanted to be a millionaire. I just wanted to live like one.
-
As an actor, you always think that whatever job you have is going to be your last. In some way, shape or form, you think you're going to screw it up and you're never going to work again.
-
Only when the sense of the pain of others begins does man begin.
-
Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.
-
I didn't work for Jimmy Carter all those years to go to cocktail parties. I was there as a political adviser, a short-order cook, to work on topical matters.
-
I am deeply immersed in my medical work, and it can get very intense, but I believe that the connection and devotion is key. You can not work on diseases as devastating and deadly as Lassa and Ebola without complete trust and respect for the individuals with whom you work. My lab and colleagues are just extraordinary, and we are a family.
-
Car chases are as painstaking to make as they are fun to watch. They take a lot of time, and you have to keep the energy up.
-
I think many people are finding things I do very funny and strange.
-
You can tell when someone is putting on a role. If someone really believes in what they're saying, it's quite hard to find cracks.
-
There's been no real reason to move to LA. The stuff I've done for America has been done in Europe anyway. We made a decision early on that we'd find our base and not shake the children's world as much as mine.
-
Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition.
-
What we need is an electronic encyclopedia of life, with one page for each species. On each page is given everything known about that species.
-
I really don't like confrontations. One of the reasons I'm retiring is that I'm tired of hurting people's feelings.
-
I'm a closet outdoorsy athletic enthusiast, and I would love to do a rafting and hiking trip someday and maybe sleep in a treehouse and bathe in a chilly winding river.
-
Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.
-
I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.
-
The silent killer of all great men and women of achievement - particularly men, I don't know why, maybe it's the testosterone - I think it's narcissism. Even more than hubris. And for women, too. Narcissism is the killer.
-
People recognize me, I have scripts, and auditions. And I meet great people.
-
Then after that came word processors and it's hard to make those laugh.
-
As a writer, it's fun to create. And once you get into a long-running show with very established characters and a very established tone and format, after a while it's a really great job, but that's what it is - a job.
