Alan Arkin Quotes, Thinking Quotes, Two Quotes

Two-thirds of American movies are extensions of commercials -- they tell you how to feel and they tell you how to think -- rather than letting you figure it out on your own.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Two Quotes

I don't think it does the audience any good to know what I do to prepare. It keeps it more of a surprise. I don't feel like it has to be a mystery.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Doe Quotes

TV has taken reflection out of the human condition. People didn't use to have a ready answer for everything, whether they knew something about it or not. People think they have to have an answer for everything because the guys on TV have an answer for everything. But it's bullsh**t! Reflection is crucial.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Taken Quotes , Thinking Quotes

You can begin to see an amalgamation of cultures, the real beginning of one world. Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine a Cockney singing group with a Southern Negro style and Indian and electronic music. I wonder if people have even noticed what a tremendous cultural signal the Beatles are.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Real Quotes , Years Quotes

Is it possible to have an endless series of successes without falling on our faces? I suppose it is, but I think it would entail doing the same things over and over again without taking chances, without taking risks or exploring our limits, without finding out what we can and can't do.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Fall Quotes , Thinking Quotes

Marriage requires searing honesty at all costs. I learned that from my third wife.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Relationship Quotes , Boyfriend Quotes

A product is most easily sold when it has an identity. So they wrap you all up and put a label on you. And then that's what you have to be. But what I'm looking for is the opportunity to explore what I can do, probing the limits, learning.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Opportunity Quotes , Identity Quotes

[The business is] more corporate and more formulaic and less experiential.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes

I played guitar. I've always considered myself an actor, but I wasn't making a living as an actor. So I was in a couple of folk groups that managed to keep me in underwear and burritos.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Couple Quotes , Guitar Quotes

No matter what you do or where you are, you're going to be missing out on something.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Missing Quotes , Matter Quotes

Creativity means learning where the rules exist, and then breaking them! Saying, "It's better this way." But you have to know the rules in order to break them with any grace.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Mean Quotes , Creativity Quotes

I don't believe there's anything in life you can't go back and fix. The ancient Vedas - the oldest Hindu philosophy - and modern science agree that time is an illusion. If that's true, there's no such thing as a past or a future - it's all one huge now. So what you fix now affects the past and the future.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Philosophy Quotes , Believe Quotes

All I can say is if the part doesn't delight me in some way, or I can't feel any compassion for it, I just can't do it.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Compassion Quotes , Delight Quotes

There's a familiarity that sometimes shocks and annoys the hell out of me. People want a relationship with you that they haven't earned.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , People Quotes , Want Quotes

It's murder to doubt yourself in life. It took until I was 45 to get to that point. As hard as it is in your work, it's harder in your life. But it can be done.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Doubt Quotes , Done Quotes

Things are never going to turn out how you think they will.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Thinking Quotes

For many years my acting came from a place of surmounting some enormous obstacle, confronting some stern and faceless judge who would condemn me to a pit of hell if I didn't achieve the "zone," if even for a moment. Not a particularly happy place to work from.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Years Quotes , Judging Quotes

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

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Believe Quotes , Artist Quotes

I don't live in L.A. on purpose because I don't wanna be immersed in that. I have to have a real life, with real people, in order to inform what I'm doing; otherwise, it just becomes the snake eating its own tail. Vampirism.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Real Quotes , Order Quotes

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alan Arkin Quotes , Horse Quotes , Hard Times Quotes