38 Quotes by Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman was a British actor known for his iconic portrayal of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, as well as numerous other memorable roles on stage and screen. With his deep, commanding voice and distinctive screen presence, Rickman was a beloved figure in the entertainment industry. He began his career on stage before transitioning to film, earning critical acclaim for his work in movies like Die Hard and Sense and Sensibility. Throughout his career, Rickman demonstrated a remarkable range and versatility as an actor, equally comfortable playing villains, heroes, and everything in between. His passing in 2016 was a great loss to the industry, but his legacy continues to live on through his unforgettable performances. (Bio)
Alan Rickman Quotes
And it's a human need to be told stories. The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible.
Give me a window and I'll stare out it.
If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.
I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.
I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision.
We're dead as a species if we don't tell stories, because then we don't know who we are.
I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word [...] - a jouuuuuurney.
It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.
Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility. (Meaning)
I have every sympathy for writers. It's a mystery to me what they do. I can edit. I can cross out and say, 'I'm not saying that' or, 'How about we move this to here? Wouldn't that make that bit of the story better?' But where any of it comes from is beyond me. I will never write a play or a novel.
I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.
If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust. (Meaning)
The difference between being an actor and a director is simple. The director has to hide his panic; the actor doesn't.
I love perfumes. Every morning when my girlfriend and I come down to the courtyard in our block of flats we're assailed by the most delicious scent - jasmine round a doorway. It almost makes me swoon.
I'm still living the life where you get home and open the fridge and there's half a pot of yogurt and a half a can of flat Coca-Cola.
Mellow doesn't describe me. I'm hungry every day.
There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.
With the best intentions, the job of acting can become a display of accumulated bad habits, trapped instincts and blocked energies. Working with the Alexander Technique has given me sightings of another way... Mind and body, work and life together. Real imaginative freedom.
I'm a lot less serious than people think, it's probably because the way my face is put together.
I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time.
I think there should be laughs in everything. Sometimes, it's a slammed door, a pie in the face or just a recognition of our frailties.
I can only see my limitations. That's just who I am.
I don't play villains, I play very interesting people
I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.
All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.
I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure.
That's it then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas.
One thing I will say - my job gets harder and harder. The more you understand about what you are capable of, the less the instrument can do it physically. It's an inverse equation, if that's the right phrase. I just slammed those two words together. It sounded right.
I like it when stories are left open.
Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.
What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing.
When I am asked about influences, I always say I bow down to Fred Astaire, because when you look at him dancing you never look at his extremities, do you? You look at his centre. What you never see is the hours of work that went into the routines, you just see the breathtaking spirit and freedom.
One of the most, in a weird way, encouraging things a director can say to an actor - I know this as an actor - is when you ask them a question, they say, I don't know - 'cause it means there's some space there for you to find out. And it means that there's going to be a process.
The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.
You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognizes something about themselves or they don't -- You hope they don't leave the theatre thinking that was nice...now where's the cab?'
I'm always aware of the camera and it feels like that's the audience.
If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.
I don't think it's right that everybody knows everything about me.
― Alan Rickman Quotes
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Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
