Alan Bates Quotes

1. I consider Peter Finch and James Mason the two best English actors of the 1960s. But I never understood Finch. How could he do something as beautiful as "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," but also make all that other shit? I mean he could read, couldn't he?


2. You can time a part perfectly and play it badly. And some people have very individual offbeat timing, which is their own. It works simply because they are who they are. 

3. I have always tried to work according to what affects me, to a script that I like because it touches me in some way, without deliberately pursuing a commercial career or a particular image.



4. I do believe in living out your own time, unless it's absolutely impossible, which it is for some people.

5. Occasionally I do things against my inner voice, but you really should go for the thing that touches you most - even if you don't quite know why it does.



6. I've never believed much in that holding hands kind of love. I've always thought that love is about two different personalities trying to confront life, trying to make sense of their responsibilities, to themselves, to each other, and to the wider society.

7. I think actors are privileged. Acting feeds you.




8. Of course, you start with dreams of being a star. You want recognition, public recognition. And why not? You're doing public work.

9. An emotional performance is usually more instinctive to an actor.

10. I think that can happen, that two people can love each other and not be able to get on at all.

11. People ask, how do you cope, and all I can say is that you do.

12. I think all plays should be filmed. I think we should forget about this division of cinema and theatre. I think any sort of great production should be filmed, just for the future if for nothing else.

13. No film should try to follow a trend, and do what film people think the public wants. There's no such thing as knowing what the public wants.


14. You can't always go by the book, even in comedy.

15. You've got to have steel in you somewhere.

16. (on Anthony Quinn) At his best he's a marvelous actor and he's a very instinctive actor. He has a sort of animal quality, although I think he's got a bit stuck with it. He's a larger than life character. He's that without trying before he starts. He's not the easiest man to work with by any means. He's quite temperamental.


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