Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.
-- Alan Rickman

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All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.
-- Alan Rickman

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Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together.
-- Alan Rickman

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I don't think it's right that everybody knows everything about me.
-- Alan Rickman

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I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.
-- Alan Rickman

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I think worrying things are going on in England - a real apathy.
-- Alan Rickman

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

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I was 7, and I remember being given a part in a play and thinking, This is exciting.
-- Alan Rickman

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I'm a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic.
-- Alan Rickman

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I'm always aware of the camera and it feels like that's the audience.
-- Alan Rickman

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I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision.
-- Alan Rickman

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

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

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If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.
-- Alan Rickman

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If you spend any time in Los Angeles, there's only one topic of conversation.
-- Alan Rickman

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

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Market forces impose certain rules before a film can actually get made.
-- Alan Rickman

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Maverick is a word which appeals to me more than misfit. Maverick is active, misfit is passive.
-- Alan Rickman

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My idea of a real treat is Magic Mountain without standing in line.
-- Alan Rickman

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My parents certainly didn't have anything to do with the theater. I'm some kind of accident.
-- Alan Rickman

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Nothing gives me as much pleasure as travelling. I love getting on trains and boats and planes.
-- Alan Rickman

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On film you put all your energies into a single glance.
-- Alan Rickman

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One longs for a director with a sense of imagination.
-- Alan Rickman

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Somebody with Debbie Reynolds' features doesn't get cast as the Wicked Witch.
-- Alan Rickman

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Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.
-- Alan Rickman

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The audience should feel like voyeurs. Their response is absolutely crucial.
-- Alan Rickman

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There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.
-- Alan Rickman

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What is it about actors? God knows I get bored with actors talking about themselves.
-- Alan Rickman

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What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing.
-- Alan Rickman

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When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter.
-- Alan Rickman

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Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.
-- Alan Rickman

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You can lull the paying customers as long as they get slapped.
-- Alan Rickman

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