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.

Alan Rickman

Categorized in : People Actors Groups

And 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.

Alan Rickman

destiny government people

Do you know that moment when you paint a landscape as a child and, when you're maybe under seven or something, the sky is just a blue stripe across the top of the paper? And then there's that somewhat disappointing moment when the teacher tells you that the sky actually comes down in amongst all the branches. And it's like life changes at that moment and becomes much more complicated and a little bit more boring, as it's rather tedious to fill in the branches.

Alan Rickman

life-changing teacher children

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

Alan Rickman

indecision plans able

We're dead as a species if we don't tell stories, because then we don't know who we are.

Alan Rickman

species who-we-are stories

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

Alan Rickman

voice should

Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands.

Alan Rickman

phones book children

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

Alan Rickman

would-be wonderful thinking

I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word [...] - a jouuuuuurney.

Alan Rickman

journey writing character

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

Alan Rickman

robust littles art

Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.

Alan Rickman

talent acting responsibility

I have every sympathy for writers. It's a mystery to me what they do. I can edit. I can cross out and say, 'I'm not saying that' or, 'How about we move this to here? Wouldn't that make that bit of the story better?' But where any of it comes from is beyond me. I will never write a play or a novel.

Alan Rickman

play writing moving

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

Alan Rickman

connections discipline thinking

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

Alan Rickman

laughter laughing way

I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time.

Alan Rickman

dubbing spokes lasts

Any actor who judges his character is a fool - for every role you play you've got to absorb that character's motives and justifications.

Alan Rickman

judging play character

I love perfumes. Every morning when my girlfriend and I come down to the courtyard in our block of flats we're assailed by the most delicious scent - jasmine round a doorway. It almost makes me swoon.

Alan Rickman

block girlfriend morning

Those of you who are not aware of my brilliant career as a stand up comic, I'm not aware of it either so we might well wonder what we're doing here.

Alan Rickman

brilliant careers might

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

Alan Rickman

describe-me mellow hungry

The difference between being an actor and a director is simple. The director has to hide his panic; the actor doesn't.

Alan Rickman

differences simple directors

Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.

Alan Rickman

making-a-difference differences book