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Portrait of Alan Ball

Alan Ball

(1957) Screenwriter United States

91 quotes in 738 categories

Alan Ball jokes about calling a hypothetical hardware store to buy a theoretical chainsaw. He wonders why vampires feel so powerful in people’s minds, even if he can’t name the exact reason. He also says beauty can appear in the strangest places, like a piece of garbage drifting in the wind.

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Alan Ball is a screenwriter from the United States, best known for American beauty.

Quick Facts About Alan Ball

Born: May 13, 1957
Nationality: United States
Profession: Screenwriter
Notable works: American beauty
Known for: Six Feet Under, American Beauty, True Blood

About Alan Ball

American screenwriter.

Awards & Honors

Writers Guild of America Award GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Directors Guild of America Award

Quotes by Alan Ball

I'm not a believer in luck, but I do believe you need it.

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The ego is kind of a big, unwieldy thing. It's not so easily tamed or subdued.

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I think sexuality is a window into someone's soul.

Sexuality

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Once Everton has touched you, nothing will be the same.

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The important thing is that he shook hands with us over the phone.

Football

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Never underestimate the power of denial.

Beauty

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If a scene is longer than three pages, it better be for a good reason.

Good reason

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I will say that the environment I grew up in was not the most progressive.

Environment

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I'd seen 'Interview with A Vampire' and saw Dracula movies growing up, but I never thought, 'I love vampires; I have to…

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I'm a huge freak, and always have been. I spent the first part of my life trying really desperately not to be…

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Most of us live in artificial environments and then we go to work in artificial environments and the world becomes something that…

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It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can…

Ability

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I'm used to American actors who have a movie career thinking television acting is beneath them.

Acting

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My own belief is that people can come back from anything. It doesn't mean that it won't come at a huge cost.

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I believe forgiveness is possible for everybody, for everything, but I'm a Buddhist.

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Not everything is going to be successful. To strive for that is really naive. You just do the best you can do.

Being successful

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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…

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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…

Character

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'True Blood' differs from 'Six Feet Under' in that there are way more characters and plot-lines, but fundamentally it's still about the…

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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…

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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…

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“Pam: I don't know what it is about me that makes people think I want to hear their problems. Maybe I smile…

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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…

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Life is infinitely complex, and I feel like we live in a culture that really seems to want to simplify it into…

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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…

Balloons

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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…

Collective unconscious

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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…

Acceptance

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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,…

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“I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so…

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“I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that…

Boy scout

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Obviously death is a theme I'm fascinated by.

Death

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Vampires are total sexual metaphors; there's just no way around that.

Metaphor

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You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure.

Beauty

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Racism is ridiculous no matter where it's coming from.

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The difference between film and TV is the pace. You don't have the leisure of time in television.

Cinema

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I'm a Buddhist, so one of my biggest beliefs is, 'Everything changes, don't take it personally.'

Belief

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The fact that we die, that makes life important. It's hard to take, but it's the truth.

Death

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We live in a patriarchal culture. It's okay for women to be objectified but not for men.

Culture

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I would say try to tell stories that you care about as opposed to stories that you think will sell.

Care

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You cannot hold a child accountable to the same standards that you hold an adult accountable to.

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Alan Ball by topic

Life (15) Time (11) People (11)

Alan Ball Quotes About: