In Loving Memory: 18 Profound Alan Rickman Quotes That Challenge Us To Be Better Creators (And People)

Each character I play has different dimensions. I’m not interested in words that pull them together.

I think there’s some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.

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.

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.

If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust.

It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.

I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure.

If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.

I can only see my limitations. That’s just who I am.

You could ask any actor about their early days, and I think you know — if you decide you’re going to do it, and then you train and you’ve committed — you know there are going to be long periods out of work. And I wasn’t different than anybody else. I know there are some lucky young actors now, they get made a star in a minute, and you worry a little for the moment when that gets snatched away. It’s a different world now. I don’t remember it now, but I’m sure the difficult moments made me stronger, or at least that’s what I’ve trained myself to think.

Mellow doesn’t describe me. I’m hungry every day.

Film has to be reflecting the world that we live in, and that’s all you want to be a part of. Actors inhabit the same planet as everyone else. It’s a weird thing that happens when you’re an actor because people hold you up because you somehow embody in parts groups of people or people’s hopes or something.

Unless we tell stories about ourselves, which is all that theater is, we’re in deep trouble.

There’s a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.

It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller.

You try to find things that are challenging and interesting and hopefully it will be the same to the audience.

I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.

Talent is an accident of genes – and a responsibility.