I don't think it does the audience any good to know what I do to prepare. It keeps it more of a surprise. I don't feel like it has to be a mystery. Alan Arkin More Quotes by Alan Arkin More Quotes From Alan Arkin You have to think of your career the way you look at the ocean, deciding which wave you're gonna take and which waves you're not gonna take. Some of the waves are going to be big, some are gonna be small, sometimes the sea is going to be calm. Your career is not going to be one steady march upward to glory. Alan Arkin look you ocean sea NI love watching science fiction because I feel like when it's done well, it's not just monsters, but philosophy. Really good science fiction like, '2001,' for example, or the first 'Matrix.' But it takes someone who's got a brain and thinks in order to do really good science fiction. Alan Arkin good brain love science 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 good time love people That's the privilege of old age: You don't have to remember. Alan Arkin you old-age age remember I don't know why we have to put things in boxes of superlatives. That isolates them. Life is fluid, and the minute you start trying to put a line around something, it will deceive you and go away. Alan Arkin start know you life I would like to have a movie under my own control sometime, and see what could be done with it. Who knows? Maybe Hollywood will make an improvisational movie someday. Alan Arkin control will see my-own Something I miss terribly from the '60s - the most important phrase in the English language was, 'I got hung up.' Somebody says they got hung up, it's unassailable, you know? You don't go near that. Whoa! I know what that can be like. Alan Arkin know you english-language language I never had a better role than I had in 'Little Miss Sunshine.' That was one of my favorite roles ever. Alan Arkin miss better never sunshine The last time I heard real screaming in the theatre was when I went to see a movie I did years ago, called 'Wait Until Dark.' Now, my mother was the least emotional person on the planet, but when I got killed in the movie, she stood up and screamed, 'That's my son!' At Radio City Music Hall in New York! Alan Arkin music mother time son The years I spent paying my dues are in the background, and so are my concerns about whether my performance is good or bad. Alan Arkin background performance bad good Everybody's career has ups and downs. I like to take chances; I don't like to stand still. And I don't give a damn what the market is interested in; I want to try things. Alan Arkin stand ups-and-downs try damn I wanted to make it in New York. I thought if I went out to the Midwest, I'd be burying myself. But I was wrong. Alan Arkin wrong new thought myself I'm used to changing a lot of the dialogue. But if I feel like the script is working, I don't want to mess with it. Alan Arkin feel like mess want I'd have to say that my favorite kind of film is serious comedy. Comedy with serious underpinning. 'Little Miss Sunshine' is like that. That's my fave genre, if I had to pick one. Alan Arkin say sunshine comedy serious Over the years, I played with a couple of spectacular guitar players, and playing with them has made me play better than I knew how to play. I hope the same thing is true with acting. Alan Arkin better me guitar hope My father was a painter. There was a lot of singing. We hung around with a lot of folk musicians. My family knew a lot of great folk musicians of the time, like Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, Leadbelly. They were all people we knew. Alan Arkin family time father people I don't know what I'm proudest of. The fact that my kids still talk to me. Alan Arkin fact talk know me
