If you’re playing a negative character, sooner or later it rubs off on you. Some people don’t mind living in that state, but I don’t want to be there anymore. I don’t want to live in a state of depression. Alan Arkin Read Quote
I’ve always been an improviser. I was one before I knew even what the word was… And acting, that I’ve been doing since I was 5. Alan Arkin Read Quote
I had to jump around in the arts for a while just to survive. I earned a little money here and there, playing the guitar at union meetings, functions. I sold some science-fiction stories. I knew there was absolutely no question of me not being connected with the arts, but I couldn’t find any acting jobs. Alan Arkin Read Quote
Unless you’re doing Shakespeare or Chekhov… the written word is not sacrosanct. Alan Arkin Read Quote
Filmmakers, they tell me they want to make movies. I say, ‘Good, go out, buy a $500 camera, get some friends and make a movie. Don’t go to Hollywood. Stay wherever you are.’ Alan Arkin Read Quote
I want to feel like I’m doing something creative and trying different things, putting different hats on and playing. I don’t know what’s the point otherwise; otherwise, it’s just a job. You punch a time clock. Alan Arkin Read Quote
There have been times when I’ve been broke, and a job came along, and I’ve said, ‘Yeah! Let’s do it!’ But I will never do something without having a feeling of knowing how to play it. I’ve been in projects that I felt terrible about afterwards, but I’ve always had something that sparked me while I was doing it. Alan Arkin Read Quote
I love working if it’s with people who are capable of having a good time. People with a little bit of enjoyment of what they do. If it’s enormous pressure, and people feel that their lives are at stake, then it’s agony. So I try to pick projects where I feel like I’m going to avoid those traps. Alan Arkin Read Quote
But one of the things I learned from improvising is that all of life is an improvisation, whether you like it or not. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century came out of people dropping things. Alan Arkin Read Quote
