Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
Alan AldaRead
On the stage, the characters express themselves more through words than images. So the arguments of the characters and the tension between characters - words have to be used to express that, and I love that about theater.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Theater relies on dialogue and character interactions to convey emotions and narratives.
In this quote, Alan Alda emphasizes the unique power of theater, highlighting how it is primarily through spoken words that characters convey their thoughts and feelings. This reliance on dialogue not only drives the plot but also fosters a deeper connection between the audience and the characters, showcasing the profound impact of language in storytelling within the performing arts.
Themes
TheaterDialogueCharactersExpressionArt
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would be perfect at a theater festival to highlight the importance of words in plays.
More from Alan Alda
All quotes →Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.
Alan AldaRead
Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself.
Alan AldaRead
Here's my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others, but keep after them until they're fair with you.
Alan AldaRead
If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.
Alan AldaRead
I found I wasn't asking good enough questions because I assumed I knew something. I would box them into a corner with a badly formed question, and they didn't know how to get out of it. Now, I let them take me through it step by step, and I listen.
Alan AldaRead
Similar quotes
If the imagination is shackled, and nothing is described but what we see, seldom will anything truly great be produced either in Painting or Poetry
Thomas ColeRead
I've never written a song in my life. It's all a big hoax.
Elvis PresleyRead
In the elder days of art Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part, For the Gods are everywhere
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
The word 'art' interests me very much. If it comes from Sanskrit, as I've heard, it signifies 'making.' Now everyone makes something, and those who make things on a canvas with a frame, they're called artists. Formerly, they were called craftsmen, a term I prefer. We're all craftsmen, in civilian or military or artistic life.
Marcel DuchampRead
If you consider film an art form, as some people do, then the Western would be a truly American art form, much as jazz is.
Clint EastwoodRead
When my friends and I would act out movies as kids, we'd play the guys' roles, since they had the most interesting things to do. Decades later, I can hardly believe my sons and daughter are seeing many of the same limited choices in current films.
Geena DavisRead