52+ Alan Cumming Quotes (Charismatic, Versatile And Entertaining)

Alan Cumming is a Scottish actor, singer, writer, producer, director, and activist. He is best known for his roles in films such as X2, Spy Kids, and Burlesque, and his role as Eli Gold on the CBS drama The Good Wife. He has also appeared in numerous stage productions, both in the West End and on Broadway.

Top 10 Alan Cumming Quotes

1. My mum always told me I was precious, while my dad always told me I was worthless. I think that's a good grounding for a balanced life.
2. Actually I like working kind of fast, because if you got it, why bother doing it over and over?
3. Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.
4. I like working on things that are very different and that involve different disguises.
5. It's really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.
6. It's actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly you'll be okay.
7. I had to be a grown-up when I should have been a little boy, and now that I'm a grown-up my little-boyness has exploded out of me. I've lived my life backwards.
8. Kids are more genuine. When they come up and want to talk to you, they don't have an agenda. It's more endearing and less piercing to your aura.
9. Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.
10. It's exciting to be with really, really good people. Some people make you feel like you've got to up your game. Working with good people is always good.

Alan Cumming Short Quotes

• Most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes.
• I'm quite good, though I say it myself, at making strangers feel at ease.
• I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare.
• With Urban Secrets, I just really liked the idea of wandering around chatting to people.
• Performing a one-man Macbeth feels like the greatest challenge.
• I like the tragedies way more than the comedies because they're so universal.
• When there's an adult person who's scaring you, you grow up pretty quickly.
• There are some days when you don't feel like being Alan Cumming.
• Once in a while it's good to challenge yourself in a way that's really daunting.
• Macbeth was the first play I ever read.

Alan Cumming Famous Quotes And Sayings

I come more to Scotland than I ever used to, so I feel more connected to it, more part of the zeitgeist. You know when you realize you have a choice and I'm choosing my homeland. It's funny: when you get older these things creep up to you. — Alan Cumming

If you are a cabaret artist and you are mostly singing other people's songs, you're asking them to rethink a song, listen to it in a different way. The most impact you can have while asking them to re-listen to a song is if it's a song they know very well. — Alan Cumming

I don't feel I'm a compulsive person. I multitask. I'm really well-organised, and I have lots of people to help me. — Alan Cumming

In my first year at drama school, I did this kids' show called 'Let's See. — Alan Cumming

Often for me, if I hear a song I know, it clicks for me and I hear it in a different way and I think, "I could sing that song. I've got something to say about that song. Wanting to connect with an audience and wanting them to rethink songs; it is actually important to do songs they're familiar with. Also, I love those songs. In a way, I think I've changed people's perceptions of what a cabaret show like this could be. — Alan Cumming

I'm not a fan of Twitter. — Alan Cumming

Some things are just really difficult to do. That's what I find hard. I usually can find a way to do a character to make it real and work. But sometimes it's a struggle sustaining that, because there's such a level of personal involvement and personal, physical, and emotional distraughtness. — Alan Cumming

Finally, the scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable. — Alan Cumming

I started to itch to do a play again and 'Macbeth' came to the surface in my mind. I never thought I would do it in a conventional way. A sweaty Macbeth with blood on his arms coming in fresh from the battle doesn't interest me. — Alan Cumming

I love a film where I get squished by two dumpsters or I fly through the air. — Alan Cumming

A sweaty Macbeth with blood on his arms coming in fresh from the battle doesn't interest me. — Alan Cumming

Actors aren't stupid, mostly, and if there's a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director's going for, if you're aware of that too, you can do things to help that. — Alan Cumming

Be who you like as long as you mean it. — Alan Cumming

So the experts think we could have an AIDS-free generation in Africa by 2015, even if the mothers are positive. — Alan Cumming

Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you've done more dramatic projects or you're classically trained. — Alan Cumming

I think people deny themselves by putting themselves into categories. — Alan Cumming

My feeling about work is it's much more about the experience of doing it than the end product. Sometimes things that are really great and make lots of money are miserable to make, and vice versa. — Alan Cumming

When you're on TV, you come into people's homes. In theater and film, they go to you - to the temple of the cinema or theater. And it's very different. — Alan Cumming

Usually, there's a story I've told that leads up to why I'm singing the song. The whole concept of the show was about being authentic and connecting with these songs. The best way to do that was in a room with an audience and for people to listen to that. — Alan Cumming

I was horrified when Richard Chamberlain and Rupert Everett said gay actors should stay in the closet. They were saying to people that they should live a lie and not be liberated, to live in fear of being found out. — Alan Cumming

He ... knew, in that instant, that his life would not be an easy one-he was different, he looked different, he thought differently. — Alan Cumming

I have no regrets in my life even the crazy things I've been in. It all made me the I am today and I wouldn't change anything. I'm happy with who I am! — Alan Cumming

The thing with film and theater is that you always know the story so you can play certain cues in each scene with the knowledge that you know where the story's going to end and how it's going to go. But on television nobody knows what's going to happen, even the writers. — Alan Cumming

I'd been depressed before, of course. But I'm talking about really depressed. Not just feeling a bit down or sad, a depression that has something to do with biorhythms. I'm talking about the kind of depressed that floats in upon you like a fog. You can feel it coming and you can see where it is going to take you but you are powerless, utterly powerless to stop it. I know now. — Alan Cumming

Nowadays people don't know how to handle it if all the ends aren't tied up and they're not told what to think in films. And if they're challenged, they think it's something wrong with the film. — Alan Cumming

I think directing in a team is a really good idea because it stops the cult of the director as God straight away, and also you're discussing things on set so it opens it out to everyone and it becomes a totally collaborative thing. And you have someone who supports you when you're feeling a bit insecure. — Alan Cumming

I don't avoid anyone but I always think some people hate me. — Alan Cumming

You should *have* an experience; it shouldn't just *be* an experience. — Alan Cumming

I wouldn't do my roles if I really hated it. I've done things I hated, but I didn't go into them thinking I would hate them. I want to have fun. I don't want to go to work and not enjoy it. So if I'm swirling around on some wires, talking to Fred Flintstone, I make it the funnest I can. I also want to be good at it. I don't want to be a crap cartoon character. I want to be proud I'm a vitamin! — Alan Cumming

You do get really exhausted doing films. You work such long hours, and after a while, things can get out of perspective, just like if anyone's tired, things get on top of them. — Alan Cumming

It's interesting, for me sappy means sentimental and something that gets you in your heart, gets you emotional. That's what I mean. Also, of course, it means that I'm slightly setting up the audience that there's a bit of fun involved, as well. — Alan Cumming

It is not hard to feel like an outsider. I think we have all felt like that at one time or another. — Alan Cumming

Life Lessons by Alan Cumming

1. Alan Cumming's work demonstrates the importance of being open to new opportunities and taking risks in order to achieve success.
2. He has also shown that it is possible to have a successful career in a variety of different fields, not just one.
3. His life story is a reminder that it is possible to overcome challenges and achieve success, no matter what your background or circumstances.