Quotes By Alan Rickman

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

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

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

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

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

You try to find things that are challenging and interesting and hopefully it will be the same to the audience.

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

I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.

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

I'm still living the life where you get home and open the fridge and there's half a pot of yogurt and a half a can of flat Coca-Cola.

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.

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

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

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

Parts win prizes, not actors.

Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.

Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.

I approach every part I'm asked to do and decide to do from exactly the same angle: who is this person, what does he want, how does he attempt to get it, and what happens to him when he doesn't get it, or if he does?

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

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

I knew with Snape I was working as a double agent, as it turns out, and a very good one at that.

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

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

I have a love-hate relationship with white silk.

The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.

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

One longs for a director with a sense of imagination.

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

I love working in New York theater.

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