Alan Alda

“I would like to know that when I read the paper in the morning, it's telling me something that actually happened, and I think the vast majority of journalists want the same thing.”

“It's a funny feeling to work with people who you consider your colleagues and to realize that they actually are young enough to be your children.”

“Musicals are hard for me because I got thrown out of the glee club in high school, because I couldn't sing in tune at the time. I can sing in tune now, but I have to work really hard on it to make sure that I don't exercise one of my great talents, which is the ability to sing in three keys at the same time.”

“The one thing I think I've noticed about shows that are supposed to be funny on television is that they've sort of become routinized, so there's an awful lot of mannerisms and joke lines that are sort of there to trigger laughter, rather than give actors a chance to play a moment.”

“Here's my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others, but keep after them until they're fair with you.”

“How can I be so captured by my own imagination that I can truly connect both to the person I'm playing and to the person I'm playing wi”

“When people are laughing, they're generally not killing one another.”

“I used to read science fiction a lot, and I still like science fiction when it is a model of how we really are and to see ourselves from another perspective.”

“Backstage life is terrific training for an actor, seeing shows from the wings.”

“I think it's important for scientists to speak in their own voices and not just be mediated by journalists or others speaking for them.”

“A really great actor, in a lucky performance, can transform himself or herself. I've seen actors do that. But often it's a mechanical transformation, which isn't as interesting, and you've got to be careful how you go about something like that, I think.”

“To do a musical takes a tremendous amount of energy because you have to act and sing at the same time. And everything has to be precise. Because you can't forget the lyrics because the band keeps playing, you know, and you're under a certain amount of pressure.”

“I never thought about my image. It interests me that there are people who do, that they seem to be methodical about it. Maybe things would have gone differently for me in some ways if I had.”

“I've been nominated twice before as actor in a leading part. Now I'm nominated as actor in a supporting part. If I don't win, I'll just wait until I'm nominated for being in the theater during the show. Do they have one like that?”

“You wouldn't want to be called a sell-out by selling a product. Selling out was frowned on, whereas now you can major in it at business school.”

“My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that.”

“I fix my grandchildren's computers.”

“I'm condemned by some inner compulsion to think about the daily rituals of my life. I have a low grade fever for improving myself in many ways, including everyday tasks.”

“All I've ever tried to do is play real people.”

“'Never Have Your Dog Stuffed' is really advice to myself, a reminder to myself not to avoid change or uncertainty, but to go with it, to surf into change.”