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
What I always wanted to get seen as was as a good actor, when it was the acting I was doing. When I'm writing, I want to try to be seen as a good writer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the desire for recognition in one's craft, whether it be acting or writing.
Alan Alda emphasizes the importance of being recognized for one's skills and dedication in specific creative pursuits. He highlights that his identity as an artist fluctuates between his roles as an actor and a writer, and he seeks validation and appreciation in each discipline separately.
Themes
ActorWriterRecognitionCraftIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
During an awards ceremony, one might quote this to highlight the importance of artistic recognition.
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
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I don't have a therapist, so I use me as my own therapist when I'm making the music.
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For me, it is freedom, freedom from everything: when I write, I'm not a woman. I'm not a Muslim. I'm not a Moroccan. I can reinvent myself, and I can reinvent the world.
Leila SlimaniRead
I tend to jot down moments, lines, interactions that don't really make any sense. I try and explain these scattered notes to my close friends, and they become more and more logical. I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve.
Asghar FarhadiRead
When the words come, they are merely empty shells without the music. They live as they are sung, for the words are the body and the music the spirit.
Hildegard Of BingenRead
I feel like for me to write songs that I would be interested in as a listener, there has to be tension, and there has to be some kind of push and pull between reality and the potential of disaster.
Jason IsbellRead