128 Quotes by Alan Arkin

A product is most easily sold when it has an identity. So they wrap you all up and put a label on you. And then that’s what you have to be. But what I’m looking for is the opportunity to explore what I can do, probing the limits, learning.

Two-thirds of American movies are extensions of commercials – they tell you how to feel and they tell you how to think – rather than letting you figure it out on your own.

Every physicist knows that things connect with each other. To isolate things is not the way the universe works – winning best actor is arbitrary.

It’s murder to doubt yourself in life. It took until I was 45 to get to that point. As hard as it is in your work, it’s harder in your life. But it can be done.

For many years my acting came from a place of surmounting some enormous obstacle, confronting some stern and faceless judge who would condemn me to a pit of hell if I didn’t achieve the “zone,” if even for a moment. Not a particularly happy place to work from.

I’ve always considered myself an actor, but I wasn’t making a living as an actor.

Truth is always unfolding. It’s not an absolute.

You know what Andy Warhol’s sole contribution to this country has been? He made Campbell’s Soup a household word.

Is it possible to have an endless series of successes without falling on our faces? I suppose it is, but I think it would entail doing the same things over and over again without taking chances, without taking risks or exploring our limits, without finding out what we can and can’t do.