A biography for Alan Aldahasn’t been written yet.
“You can watch actors create their illusions, but if you don't see where they get the pigeons from, you don't really know how they're doing it.”
“In the midst of the sense of tragedy or loss, sometimes laughter is not only healing, it's a way of experiencing the person that you've lost again.”
“I don't really worry about the size of the part much any more. It's nice to have more time to work on the character, and to have big scenes to play. But if there's something playable there, and if it's interesting to do, then that's nice.”
“In 2003, I almost died of an intestinal blockage when I was on a mountain in Chile, filming a segment for 'Scientific American Frontiers.'”
“I find myself going to places where I really have no business, speaking to these people in a whole other field that I have no extensive knowledge of. But I do it very often because it scares me.”
“If I can't get the girl, at least give me more money.”
“I feel like every time a door is opened by science, suddenly there are a hundred doors that need to get opened. That's what makes it an everlasting, interesting experience to go through.”
“Anyone I know who's almost died has come out of it, at least for a while, looking at things differently.”
“The meaning of life is life.”
“For humans, flying isn't magic, it's physics.”
“It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It's only necessary to be rich.”
“You can't be aware of everything. You'd fall down the stairs if you were aware of every intricate thing involved in going down stairs.”
“I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even 'hari-kari' if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!”
“It makes it fun. When an actor plays a character, you want what that character wants. Otherwise it doesn't look authentic. So I really want to defeat Jimmy - I mean Jimmy as the character.”
“The hardest thing for me about making movies, and that included 'M*A*S*H' because it was made like a movie, was starting and stopping.”
“The whole question of fiduciary responsibility is a very old concept. You could make a movie about someone making that rule at any point in history, and within a few months, it will turn out to be timely.”
“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.”
“I made my first stage appearance when I was 6 months old.”
“What I can't completely understand is most other people's fascination with what the famous among us do with their lips and the rest of their bodies. Why do ordinary people become the target of this curiosity simply by virtue of the fact that other people recognise their names and faces but know almost nothing else about them?”
“I've had many uncanny experiences. I think it's hard to be alive and not have them. But I don't know if I can decide what that means or what they are.”