Quotes by Alan Ball - Page 2

Ultimately, physical resemblance isn't as important as whether this person can bring this character to life in a way that's compelling and makes me care about what happens to them.
Alan Ball / Writer
Care
Character
Compelling
Important
Resemblance
Life Character Me
Ultimately
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I think it's very difficult, and it requires a tremendous amount of spiritual integrity and discipline, to not be a narcissist in a culture that encourages it every step of the way.
Alan Ball / Writer
Discipline
Every Step
Integrity
Narcissist
Spiritual
Thinking
Tremendous
Encourages
Requires
Tremendous Amount
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I felt pride, wonderful pride, when I was captain. It was an honour to take over from Labby. Anybody who has ever captained a big club, which Everton are, will tell you it's a great honour.
Alan Ball / Writer
Captains
Clubs
Pride
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Beauty is in the strangest places. A piece of garbage floating in the wind. And that beauty exists in America. It exists everywhere. You have to develop an eye for it and be able to see it.
Alan Ball / Writer
Beauty
Able
America
Eye
Floating
Garbage
Wind
Everywhere
Develop
Exists
Piece
Places
See
Strangest
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There are times when I am directing, and there are a couple of moments I didn't get the way I wanted, but I know I still have other angles to shoot and I have to be done by noon; I move on.
Alan Ball / Writer
Couple
Moving
Noon
Angles
Done I Am Way
Directing
Move On
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I'm not saying that being gay is what defines me, but at the same time, if you feel like you have to hide it, then it becomes what defines you. You keep it hidden, and the secret becomes you.
Alan Ball / Writer
Time Me Keep
Defines
Hidden
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Life is too mysterious to try to map it out. I've certainly lived long enough to know it will take you places you never thought it would take you - and some of those places are kind of wonderful.
Alan Ball / Writer
Long
Maps
Mysterious
Trying
Life Long Will
Map
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The idea of celibate vampires is ridiculous. To me, vampires are sex. I don't get a vampire story about abstinence. I don't care about high school students. I find them irritating and uninformed.
Alan Ball / Writer
Ideas
School
Sex
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I need to feel like the work I'm doing is not necessarily important, but meaningful, at least to me, because otherwise it just becomes a day job. It just becomes factory work and I get really frustrated.
Alan Ball / Writer
Jobs
Frustrated
Meaningful
Work Me Day
Day Job
Factory
Otherwise
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I am so spoiled. I cannot watch a show where it gets interrupted for ads. I have to TiVo it and skip through the ads, because the culture of advertising is so false and phony that I just... ugh, you know?
Alan Ball / Writer
Ads
Culture
Interrupted
Phony
Skip
Spoiled
Ugh
Watches
False
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I know a lot of shows are like, 'Here's the pages,' right before they start filming. I'd have a heart attack. The anxiety would be way too much for me. I don't have as strong a backbone as those other show writers.
Alan Ball / Writer
Anxiety
Backbone
Heart
Pages
Strong
Attack
Filming
Writers
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I certainly feel fortunate in my career to have been able to continue to work in different mediums. I don't ever want to be the guy who gets really good at one thing and just does that over and over and over again.
Alan Ball / Writer
Fortunate
Mediums
Work Good Feel
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As a writer, it's fun to create. And once you get into a long-running show with very established characters and a very established tone and format, after a while it's a really great job, but that's what it is - a job.
Alan Ball / Writer
Jobs
Running
Format
Fun
Great Job
Tone
Established
Long-Running
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I was conveniently bisexual for a long time, and then I went, 'Come on, who am I kidding?' And I have to say, it was the single biggest step I took toward emotional well-being, to stop feeling like I had to hide who I am.
Alan Ball / Writer
Bisexual
Emotional
Long
Long Time
Single
Well Being
Who I Am
Time I Am Long
Time I Am Step
Biggest
Conveniently
Feeling
Hide
Step
Took
Toward
Who Am I
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I think all writers are armchair psychologists to some degree or another, and I think a character's sexuality is fascinating. It's a great way to really get at the root of their identity, because it's such a personal thing.
Alan Ball / Writer
Character
Fascinating
Identity
Roots
Sexuality
Thinking
All Writers
Armchair
Degree
Great Way
Personal Thing
Psychologists
Root
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I'm not like J.K. Rowling, where I know there's going to be this number of seasons, and I know exactly what's going to happen. I would be so bored if that was the case. There would be no journey. There would be nothing to discover.
Alan Ball / Writer
Journey
Bored
Numbers
Seasons
Discover
Rowling
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I guess in America we're so sold on this ideal of the perfect, well-adjusted family that is able to confront any conflict and, with true love and understanding, work things through. I'm sure they do exist, but I never knew any of them.
Alan Ball / Writer
True Love
America
Conflict
Perfect
Understanding
Love Family Work
Confront
Ideal
Sold
Well-Adjusted
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I certainly believe that what we perceive as humans is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't necessarily believe in vampires or werewolves or that kind of thing, but I believe there is definitely a realm we don't necessarily have access to.
Alan Ball / Writer
Access
Believe
Humans
Iceberg
Perceive
Tip Of The Iceberg
Vampire
Realm
Tip
Vampires
Werewolves
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It's hard for me to get interested in stories that ignore death, which is what American marketing culture would like to do: pretend that death doesn't exist, that you can buy immortality; just buy these products, and you'll be forever young and happy.
Alan Ball / Writer
Immortality
Marketing
Products
Pretend
Ignore
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Death showed up in my life very early on, so I'm aware of it. If you look at most of the things I write there's a sort of contemplation of mortality - although 'True Blood' doesn't fall into that. Even though there's such a ridiculously high body count!
Alan Ball / Writer
Death
Blood
Contemplation
Fall
Mortality
Although
Aware
Count
High
Early
My Life
Ridiculously
Though
True Blood
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I don't believe in any particular definition of the afterlife, but I do believe we're spiritual creatures and more than our biology and that energy cannot be destroyed, but can change. I don't know what the afterlife is going to be, but I'm not afraid of it.
Alan Ball / Writer
Biology
Creatures
Destroyed
Particular
Spiritual
Afraid
Definition
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It's a lot harder to find fault with the mundane details of daily existence when you really, really know on a cellular level that you're going to go, and that this moment, right now, is life. Life isn't what happens to you in 20 years. This moment, right now, is your life.
Alan Ball / Writer
Cellular
Details
Existence
Levels
Mundane
Years
Life Daily Moment
Daily
Fault
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I don't really know what it is about vampires that makes them such a powerful symbol, metaphor, whatever in people's consciousness. But I do know they're tremendously powerful. I mean, there's a vampire on 'Sesame Street.' And Count Chocula. I don't know why it's so powerful.
Alan Ball / Writer
Consciousness
Metaphor
Sesame Street
Vampire
Count
Sesame
Symbol
Tremendously
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That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is going to cave in.
Alan Ball / Writer
Beauty
Life
Heart
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I definitely see the good in people. Certainly in my own life I strive to be somebody who is functional and well adjusted and can face conflict in a non-emotional and non-destructive way, and those are the people I try to surround myself with in my life. But as characters, they bore me.
Alan Ball / Writer
Character
Conflict
Emotional
People
Strive
Surround
Life Good Myself
Functional
Adjusted
Bore
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I think there's a lot of interesting stuff on TV. I feel much more optimistic about TV than I do about movies. There will always be good movies but I think, for the most part, it's always going to be a huge fight to get those movies made. TV is the best place to be as a writer, I think.
Alan Ball / Writer
Optimistic
Best Good Movies
Good Movies
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I always choose to look, as much as one can, at the supernatural not being something that exists outside of nature, but a deeper, fundamental heart of nature that perhaps humans have lost touch with. It's a more primal thing than perhaps we are attuned to in our modern, self-aware way of life.
Alan Ball / Writer
Heart
Looks
Self
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Television viewing has become for me a completely different experience, because I don't watch shows on a weekly basis. I wait until the DVD or I TiVo everything and wait until the end of a season and watch it all over a weekend. For me that's a really satisfying experience, like reading a book.
Alan Ball / Writer
Book
Reading
Satisfying
Weekend
Basis
Viewing
Weekly
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I always choose to look, as much as one can, at the supernatural not being something that exists outside of nature, but a deeper, fundamental heart of nature that perhaps humans... have lost touch with. It's a more primal thing than perhaps we are attuned to in our modern, self-aware way of life.
Alan Ball / Writer
Deeper
Humans
Lost
Primal
Life Nature Always
Touch
Attuned
Choose
Exists
Fundamental
Outside
Perhaps
Supernatural
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I really feel like my goal, and I don't always achieve it, is to do the best work I can do, and stay out of the results. Because ultimately, the result is not what the work is about. There are other people whose jobs are to focus on those results and maximize them, and that's great. Let them do their job.
Alan Ball / Writer
Best Work
Results
Best Work Great
Maximize
Ultimately
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Depending on what happens with my directing career, I don't think I'll stop writing, even if I crash and burn in movies and TV. I'll go back to plays. Even if I crash and burn there, I'll write a novel. That's the great thing about writing is that you don't have to wait for people to give you permission to do it.
Alan Ball / Writer
Crash
Novel
Permission
Writing
Tv
Great Movies People
Burn
Career
Depending
Directing
Wait
Great Thing
Plays
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It's easy to look at the vampires as a metaphor for any feared or misunderstood group. It's also easy to look at them as a metaphor for a shadow organization that says one thing and has a completely different agenda on their mind, and anybody who gets in their way, they just get rid of them. Does that sound familiar?
Alan Ball / Writer
Familiar
Metaphor
Mind
Misunderstood
Organization
Shadow
Agenda
Feared
Rid
Vampires
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I love to direct! I get really jazzed by directing, but directing is not the same kind of personal expression, the same kind of personal intimate expression that writing is. Because when you're directing, you're basically managing, basically getting out of people doing their job, except when you see them going astray.
Alan Ball / Writer
Direct
Intimate
Personal Expression
Love People Doing
Astray
Managing
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In my own life, I think legends of supernatural, mythic things are really just a manifestation of the collective unconscious. So I don't really get freaked out. I mean certainly, you read about things people did to each other in the pursuit of some mystical or occult goal, and it's horrifying. But that's just human nature.
Alan Ball / Writer
Collective Unconscious
Human Nature
Legends
Manifestation
Mean
Mystical
Occult
Pursuit
Thinking
Unconscious
Life Nature People
Certainly
Collective
Freaked
Horrifying
Supernatural
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And as I stumbled onto Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, it was the first time I had ever read any sort of philosophy that really made a tremendous amount of sense. What I liked that was missing from my experience of Christianity growing up was a sort of acceptance, a sort of being OK with being imperfect and not focusing on the sin.
Alan Ball / Writer
Acceptance
Amount
Buddhism
Christianity
Eastern
First Time
Growing Up
Imperfect
Missing
Philosophy
Sin
Time Experience First Time
Tremendous
Read
Liked
Focusing
Onto
Stumbled
Tremendous Amount
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Life is suffering. We have desires and expectations and egos, and we compare the reality we have, which is miraculous and wondrous, with this reality we desire. That somehow distances us from actually taking part fully with the reality we do have, and that creates suffering. For me, the thing that I love is that it's all about the present moment.
Alan Ball / Writer
Distance
Love Is
Reality
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It’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...
Alan Ball / Writer
Beauty
Gratitude
Stupid
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Alan Ball Quotes - Page 2

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