Alan Rickman
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.Collection: Morning
Originally, theater was my life. It was what I assumed I'd spend my working life doing - if I was lucky. Then along came movies.Collection: Movies
From my experience, I think that every actor has to make sure that they're in charge of their own career somehow or other.Collection: Experience
If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust.Collection: Art
I have a photograph at home of Fred Astaire from the knees down with his feet crossed. It's kind of inspiring because it reminds me his feet were bleeding at the end of rehearsals. Yet when you watch him, all you see is freedom. It's a reminder of what the job is about in general, not just being in musicals.Collection: Freedom
Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.Collection: Music
I always feel that when I come to Edinburgh, in many ways I am coming home.Collection: Home
The directors you trust the most are the ones, when you ask them a question, they've got the guts to say, 'I don't know.'Collection: Trust
I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.Collection: Freedom
It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.Collection: Future
I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure.Collection: Failure
I have a love-hate relationship with white silk.Collection: Relationship
I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.Collection: Work
One longs for a director with a sense of imagination.Collection: Imagination
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.Collection: Sympathy
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. Or, what's impossible? What's a fantasy?
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.
I never talk about 'Harry Potter' because I think that would rob children of something that's private to them. I think too many things get explained, so I hate talking about it.
I was a student in London in the '70s, so CBGB really wasn't on my radar at all. Obviously, I was aware of the emergence of the Police in England and as an art student, I was very aware of David Byrne, but I suppose my musical taste at that time certainly didn't stretch towards the Dead Boys or the Ramones.
I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision.
I'm very aware that when one is acting in the theater, you do become kind of animal about it. And you're reliant on instincts rather than tact a lot of the time.
I am the character you are not supposed to like.
Mellow doesn't describe me. I'm hungry every day.
What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing.
I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.
Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.
Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.
You can lull the paying customers as long as they get slapped.
There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.
Nothing gives me as much pleasure as travelling. I love getting on trains and boats and planes.
When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter.
I don't think it's right that everybody knows everything about me.
The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.
Older people say, 'Oh I loved you in 'Sense and Sensibility,' and that's the only film they want to talk about. Equally, there are people who only want to talk about 'Galaxy Quest.' And there's a whole bunch of teenagers who only want to talk about 'Dogma.'
I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word: a journey.
My idea of a real treat is Magic Mountain without standing in line.
I love working in New York theater.
I knew with Snape I was working as a double agent, as it turns out, and a very good one at that.
So you can't judge the character you're playing ever.
If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.
I like it when stories are left open.
You try to find things that are challenging and interesting and hopefully it will be the same to the audience.
Actors are actually very supportive of each other.
Being on the stage in New York is always exciting because you feel like you're part of the life of the city.
I approach every part I'm asked to do and decide to do from exactly the same angle: who is this person, what does he want, how does he attempt to get it, and what happens to him when he doesn't get it, or if he does?
I'm a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic.
I can only see my limitations. That's just who I am.
All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.
Maverick is a word which appeals to me more than misfit. Maverick is active, misfit is passive.
I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.