Alan Rickman Quotes

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

That's it then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas. ~ Alan Rickman

Everyone has a story with coca-cola people like Wayne Dyer even and people like Alan Rickman and many other people, so... they are dead so you can take it Coca-Cola is part of the history! ~ Deyth Banger

I did 'Quigley Down Under,' which is quite deliberately placed in Australia, which is a Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman, Laura San Giacomo film from '88, I want to say. ~ Ben Mendelsohn

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

I always feel that when I come to Edinburgh, in many ways I am coming home. ~ Alan Rickman

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? ~ Alan Rickman

From my experience, I think that every actor has to make sure that they're in charge of their own career somehow or other. ~ Alan Rickman

I never talk about 'Harry Potter' because I think that would rob children of something that's private to them. I think too many things get explained, so I hate talking about it. ~ Alan Rickman

It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo. ~ Alan Rickman

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

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

I've learned, having been on a lot of sets, the good news is that by definition you are surrounded by experts. They get fired if they're not - unlike in the theatre! ~ Alan Rickman

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

When Alan Rickman, a dear friend of mine, played villains, he always made it complicated. He didn't redeem what they did, but he made you feel that it was hard for them to be so horrible. ~ Susan Sarandon

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

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

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

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

In theater, you've got to be aware of your whole body because it involves stamina. It involves two-and-a-half hours and a sustained release of energy, maybe for six months. ~ Alan Rickman

I just did adore Daniel - Daniel Radcliffe, who I had worked with before "Harry Potter" and spent a long time telling all the producers they had to see him because I thought he was so terrific. And it's been sad thinking about it because of Alan Rickman. ~ Maggie Smith

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

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

I was a student in London in the '70s, so CBGB really wasn't on my radar at all. Obviously, I was aware of the emergence of the Police in England and as an art student, I was very aware of David Byrne, but I suppose my musical taste at that time certainly didn't stretch towards the Dead Boys or the Ramones. ~ Alan Rickman

When I am asked about influences, I always say I bow down to Fred Astaire, because when you look at him dancing you never look at his extremities, do you? You look at his centre. What you never see is the hours of work that went into the routines, you just see the breathtaking spirit and freedom. ~ Alan Rickman

Certainly as actors, and maybe as directors, you've got to hang on to something childlike. You've got to know what play is. I haven't worked with Mike Leigh, but I know him very well and there's something open in his eyes about what's in front of him. And the same is true of Alfonso in a Mexican, mad way. There's an enthusiastic response to something. Neil Jordan, the same, when he gets excited . You just want to know there's a human being in there. ~ Alan Rickman

One of the most, in a weird way, encouraging things a director can say to an actor - I know this as an actor - is when you ask them a question, they say, I don't know - 'cause it means there's some space there for you to find out. And it means that there's going to be a process. ~ Alan Rickman

And watched Alan Rickman act up a storm in Private Lives. Someone once said that this highly mannered actor had made a career out of being brilliant in roles where no brilliance was required. ~ Joe Queenan

It's a nightmare to sit and watch a film that I'm in. There's a horrible inescapability to it. ~ Alan Rickman

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

So you can't judge the character you're playing ever. ~ Alan Rickman

I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously ~ Alan Rickman

You know, he [Alan Rickman] played these very reserved, sometimes-cold, sometimes-threatening characters on the screen, but the reality of the man was incredible warmth and humor and generosity and wicked fun. ~ Helen Mirren

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

A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world. ~ Alan Rickman

There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few who cherish ... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death." - Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. ~ J.K. Rowling

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

She didn't care about wizards, but she thought Alan Rickman was dreamy. ~ Rainbow Rowell

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

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

I'm very aware that when one is acting in the theater, you do become kind of animal about it. And you're reliant on instincts rather than tact a lot of the time. ~ Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman told me to do a play, so I did. Because when Alan Rickman tells you do something, you go and do it. ~ Matthew Lewis

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

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

With that incredible voice that he [Alan Rickman] could play like a sort of wonderful instrument, like a cello or something. He played his voice, and he could be the most subtle of actors. And he could also be quite a big actor. He could do the grandiose performances as well. ~ Helen Mirren

Snow Cake is a lovely film. Really proud of that. We shot it in 21 days. I thought Sigourney was amazing in it. And very, very accurate. I think there was some element that thought she had pushed it too far. But not at all when you do the amount of homework she had done and spent the amount of time she did with adult autistics. She was right on the money. And I think Marc Evans is a terrific director. He's a sweet, open, honest man and a really good director of actors. ~ Alan Rickman

The directors you trust the most are the ones, when you ask them a question, they've got the guts to say, 'I don't know.' ~ Alan Rickman

I'm a lot less serious than people think. ~ Alan Rickman

Actors are actually very supportive of each other. ~ Alan Rickman

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

Being on the stage in New York is always exciting because you feel like you're part of the life of the city. ~ Alan Rickman

England in the '60s and the '70s was everything that history has said; it was phenomenally exciting, musically. ~ Alan Rickman

I certainly think that he [Alan Rickman] was a kind of actor who needed to grow into his maturity to realize the potential, the huge potential that he had. ~ Helen Mirren

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

God, all those months of seeing Kelsey's pictures and hearing about her travels, and I had been raging with jealousy. And now it was my turn.
I wanted to mind the gap at the tube station and eat fish and chips and try to make the Queen's guards laugh. I wanted to see Big Ben and the Globe and the London Bridge and Dame Judi Dench. Or Maggie Smith. Or Alan Rickman. Or Sir Ian McKellen. Or anybody famous and British, really.
Holy crap. This was really happening.
And I wasn't just a tourist. I was visiting with someone who'd grown up in the city. With my fiancé.
Take that, world. ~ Cora Carmack

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

The first time that I came to New York to work properly was the mid-'80s, but I was doing eight shows a week. You have no life. Going to a punk rock club - or whatever the music was at that time - would not have been on my agenda. ~ Alan Rickman

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

Older people say, 'Oh I loved you in 'Sense and Sensibility,' and that's the only film they want to talk about. Equally, there are people who only want to talk about 'Galaxy Quest.' And there's a whole bunch of teenagers who only want to talk about 'Dogma.' ~ Alan Rickman

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

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

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

If you judge the character, you cant play it. ~ Alan Rickman

There's, like, marks next to an actor's name or something, and boy does that go up and down! Somewhere in there, which always causes my mate Miss Ruby Wax great hilarity, I was offered a biopic of Frank Sinatra. Even I knew that was a bad idea! They'll throw anything at you at certain times. So, you know, to thine own self be true. ~ Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman had to drop into a blue screen stretched over a bag. It might have been 30 feet, which is plenty scary. You'd break your back, especially if you were untrained, but this is the thing about it: What you see on his face when he lets go is real fear. It's one of the greatest shots ever. ~ Brian Abrams

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

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

I was coming from a very cerebral, dark, difficult, layered play by Christopher Hampton and doing an action movie in Hollywood (Die Hard) with explosions, and I was holding a gun. ~ Alan Rickman

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

You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognizes something about themselves or they don't
You hope they don't leave the theatre thinking that was nice ... now where's the cab?' ~ Alan Rickman

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

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. Or, what's impossible? What's a fantasy? ~ Alan Rickman

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

On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes. ~ Alan Rickman

I never expected to have any kind of film career, to be honest. It was all a bit of a surprise. But I was in a big hit play on Broadway. America, as many people will say, says yes more often than we do. And so I was suddenly surrounded by people saying yes. But I was aware that was 'cause of what I was in. It had a big impact. ~ Alan Rickman

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

I am the character you are not supposed to like. ~ Alan Rickman

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

Very nice lady served us drinks in hotel and was followed in by a cat. We all crooned at it. Alan [Rickman] to cat (very low and meaning it): 'Fuck off.' The nice lady didn't turn a hair. The cat looked slightly embarrassed but stayed. ~ Emma Thompson

A wounding tongue. I'm working on it. Perhaps its the Celt in me. ~ Alan Rickman

I think the thing about film is, as it gets proved by a lot of young filmmakers now, that the medium will just go on reinventing itself, and so you just hope to be a part of that and not a part of some kind of endless regurgitation or 'Here I am doing what you know I do' kind of thing. ~ Alan Rickman

With the best intentions, the job of acting can become a display of accumulated bad habits, trapped instincts and blocked energies. Working with the Alexander Technique has given me sightings of another way ... Mind and body, work and life together. Real imaginative freedom ... ~ Alan Rickman

Unless we tell stories about ourselves, which is all that theater is, we're in deep trouble. ~ Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman was such a terrific actor, and that was such a terrific character that he played. And it was a joy to be with him. We used to laugh together because we ran out of reaction shots. They were always - when everything had been done and the children were finished, they would turn the camera around and we'd have to do various reaction shots of amazement or sadness and things. We used to say we'd got to about number 200-and-something and we'd run out of knowing what to do when the camera came around on us. But he was a joy. ~ Maggie Smith

Still, it was impossible to deny: Going all the way to London without taking time out to attend a few horrendous plays was like making a special trip to Hell without ever asking to meet Satan. So this time around, I decided to plunge in headfirst. Never a fan of Noel Coward, I nonetheless reported to the Albery Theatre, forked over a king's ransom for a good seat, and watched Alan Rickman act up a storm in Private Lives. ~ Joe Queenan

I don't play villains, I play very interesting people ~ Alan Rickman

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

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

I love 'Love Actually' and particularly the story with Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson. I think it's possibly the best exploration of infidelity that's ever been done because it really feels accurate and real. ~ John Requa

One thing I will say - my job gets harder and harder. The more you understand about what you are capable of, the less the instrument can do it physically. It's an inverse equation, if that's the right phrase. I just slammed those two words together. It sounded right. ~ Alan Rickman

I am hellbent on defying your expectations, at every turn, and even if you don't like what's being done, I dare you to find it uninteresting. ~ Alan Rickman

Los Angeles is not a town full of airheads. There's a great deal of wonderful energy there. They say 'yes' to things; not like the endless 'nos' and 'hrrumphs' you get in England! ~ Alan Rickman

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

When I first met Alan, I was absolutely terrified. I was 19, he was Alan Rickman, and he's got that voice, and I remember meeting him in the hair and make-up trailer and thinking, 'I'm going to die. He thinks I'm rubbish. Why am I here?' ~ Kate Winslet

One does not simply watch Harry Potter movies without praising Alan Rickman! ~ Gauri Bhardwaj

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

Give me a window and I'll stare out it. ~ Alan Rickman

I think there should be laughs in everything. Sometimes, it's a slammed door, a pie in the face or just a recognition of our frailties. ~ Alan Rickman

I got an amazing 10-CD set, it's the music that Alan Lomax recorded in Haiti in 1936. And what's incredible is how fantastic the drummers are and how off-the-grid they are. The liveliness is astonishing; they're just totally alive, these recordings. It's very interesting, to me, to be reminded of that, that there was a time when things were not that tight. ~ Brian Eno

But rules cannot substitute for character. ~ Alan Greenspan