Top 140 Allen Quotes

I’d love to work with Woody Allen.

A part of me looks at life from a dismal perspective, not unlike Woody Allen and Larry David. But I don’t want to look at life like that. It’s bad enough that I have to think it. What works for me is writing against that view. There is God, there is love, there is greatness, there is a plan, and there is beauty.

If you ask most people, ‘Who’s Lily Allen?,’ they’ll say, ‘That girl who’s in the papers all the time.’ Not that girl who wrote songs.

I’d love to work with Lena Headey, Alfie Allen, Charles Dance. I’d love to work with Peter Dinklage.

When I went to Paris, I had a lot of ideas about it that were formed in the sort of ether that flows about if you watch too many recent Woody Allen movies or took French classes as a kid. I was certainly full of those.

‘Allen Gregory’ came about because we wanted an animated show and we were just tossing around some ideas about me playing a 7-year-old. We thought that would be cool, because we couldn’t do that in real life.

When I tell people I spent almost a year in Paris, I know they imagine something out of a Woody Allen movie, which it wasn’t, of course. I was just working in a clothes shop, but I was aware that it was exciting.

I know that this sounds grand, but I don’t try to compete with other people. I like to think there’s enough pie for everyone. The kind of people I’m competing with are my heroes – Woody Allen, Billy Wilder – who I know I’m going to fall short of.

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.

I honestly don’t know how John Allen can look at himself in the mirror and say why he supports Hillary Clinton.

I would love to have a long and serious conversation with the Pope. And Woody Allen, whom I have never interviewed. Then, after those two? Steve Jobs.

First off, I love Woody Allen. His early movies, like ‘Hannah and Her Sisters,’ are incredible. I also love anything by Billy Wilder, Ron Howard and John Hughes. I really grew up on the Hughes films, which are the ones I go back and watch all the time, just to see how they were put together.

I would like to work with people whose films I really like: Walter Salles, Woody Allen, Julio Medem.

2009 was crazy enough! I can’t believe I worked with Jeremy Irons, Joan Allen, Marsha Mason, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, Jack O’Brien and Trevor Nunn in the same 12 months.

Allen Edmonds makes stylish, comfortable shoes and after getting to know some people there, they asked if I wanted to co-design a shoe. I visited the factory, met with some designers and together we came up with something that I think is a good, solid staple for any wardrobe.

Probably the only way Woody Allen and I are similar is that he has a lot to say about Nietzsche.

A NASA-funded study estimates that if the price of a ticket to space approached $100,000, close to a million people would buy one. That’s a $100 billion industry. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen gave me $20 million in startup funding to go after that market.

I would love to work with Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich, Omar Epps, Martin Scorsese, Josh Mond, Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson, and David O. Russell, just to name a few. Those guys are absolutely brilliant at what they do.

Congratulations are in order for Woody Allen – he and Soon Yi have a brand new baby daughter. It’s all part of Woody’s plan to grow his own wives.

There’s nothing that sells good about Allen Iverson if it’s something positive about Allen Iverson.

I was raised on GG Allen, Divine, Elvira and Marilyn Manson. I was always more interested in those button pushing, transgressive artists and they made a lot of good money doing it.

My coach, Robert Allen, helped me a lot. He had more influence on my growth as a player than anyone else.

Very few people have actually read Freud, but everyone seems prepared to talk about him in that Woody Allen way. To read Freud is not as much fun.

How movies are financed, it’s a world market now… I feel like, you know, the independent film way of working is something that was in my bones. It’s like being a part of a punk band, but no one’s singing punk rock anymore. Only a few bands are able to play, and Woody Allen is one of them.

Man, I’m 31 years old and a husband with four kids; I hope I’m no thug. I hear all those negative things and don’t hear anything positive. I think that’s all those people feel… that way that’s all they hear about when you hear Allen Iverson did something negative or something.

I consider myself a Jewish writer, like all my heroes: Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, Philip Roth, Arthur Miller, Woody Allen.

I did the Ed Sullivan show four times. I did the Steve Allen show. I did the Jackie Gleason show.

I’ve done tons of Debbie Allen musicals. I was a dancer in ‘Glee,’ and I was a Laker girl for three months.

I couldn’t have accomplished the things in my career if I didn’t practice, and the worst part about that whole thing is when a kid comes up to me and says ‘Allen, I don’t like practice, either.’ I’ve got to straighten that kid right then.

It seems that our politicians see the world in black and white, so why not our artists? Did Woody Allen’s ‘Manhattan’ have to be in black and white? No. But is it fantastic that it was? To see New York like that? Yes!

Woody Allen is a great dramatist and a great comedian.

The only folk I can judge are people like Woody Allen who I think is a genius, largely because I think he has beaten the system. He has his own company, and his films are all his own ideas. It’s his direction, and so it comes out the way he imagined it.

Woody Allen – legally, ethically, personally – was absolutely a father in our family.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – one can believe in Woody Allen’s innocence without presuming Dylan Farrow to be a liar.

The great thing about ‘Allen Gregory’ is that we try to make it really questionable that the things he says have happened, have really happened. We like that ambiguity.

I’d still like to work with Woody Allen.

You look at Kawhi Leonard, Tony Allen, Draymond Green: they are great on ball, and they are great team defenders as well. You want to be both of them, not just one.

Allen Ginsberg was a world authority on the writing of William Blake, and had an incredible knowledge of classic literature and world politics.

I love ‘Husbands and Wives,’ Woody Allen’s movie. It’s like one of my all-time favorites. I could watch it over and over again.

I’ve stayed buddies with my old buddy Jackie Slater. I talk to Jackie Slater. I play golf with Marcus Allen a lot. I play golf with Marshall Faulk a lot. My buddy Craig Young, he lives up in New Mexico. I still talk to a lot of the guys.

‘Dil Kabaddi’ is an urban comedy about couples breaking up and reconciling. It’s based on one of Woody Allen’s movies. Can’t remember which one.

Woody Allen is in his ’70s and he’s making movies, so I look forward to getting there.

Whatever I had to prove in the ‘Flash’ world about myself as an actor, I proved as Henry Allen.

‘The Butler’ has virtually nothing in common with its source material, the life of White House butler Gene Allen, except for the fact that the main character of the film and Allen were both black butlers in the White House.

I loved Woody Allen’s short pieces. I was equally influenced by Woody Allen and Norman Mailer. I was very into this idea of being high-low, of being serious and intellectual but also making really broad jokes.

I was raised by a dad who has a fantastic sense of humor who raised me on ‘The Muppet Show,’ Steve Martin movies, and Woody Allen’s standup, and he really encouraged me to ham it up from an early age.

I think Katy B encapsulates young London in a way I never could. She reps London harder than anyone song-wise since Lily Allen.

Maybe I haven’t been tested, but I have no fear of death at all. I was with Allen Ginsberg during the last year of his life, and he called all his friends and said, ‘I’m on my way out, and it’s kind of exciting.’ I see it as kind of exciting, too.

Oddly, a search for ‘jeggings’ in my email inbox shows that my first exposure to the phenomenon came from – wait for it – Mike Allen of ‘Politico,’ who helpfully explained the concept on December 20, 2009.

I miss the outspoken pop stars like Lily Allen.

People who I’ve worked with are always like, ‘Why aren’t you doing comedy? You’re funny!’ because they’ve only seen the one side. I did do the comedy ‘Whatever Works,’ with Woody Allen and Larry David.

You probably can’t name more than a handful of comedies that would qualify for Best Picture. I can think of a lot of comedy screenplays; Woody Allen has had numerous nominations for his screenplays. But most comedies are calculated. They tend to pander. They’re not about anything important.

When time permits, I try to see interesting people in the cities I visit. In Seattle, I met Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, who is shy in personality but flamboyant in his philanthropy.

I wanted to work with Mike Leigh. I had my list of British people I wanted to work with, and I wanted to work with David Lynch and Woody Allen.

I don’t understand why people make me want to make music that’s a join-the-dots thing by numbers. I find it really difficult when people say, ‘Aw, you should have made a really big hip hop record, that would have been really good for you’ or, ‘You should have made a song like Lily Allen, that would have been so great.’

When you have players like Aaron Ramsey, Gareth Bale, and Joe Allen, you’ve got to play football.

I’m a huge Bob Hope fan, up until about the late ’50s. I’ve seen so many of his movies up until then, and they’re a big influence on me and a big influence on Woody Allen, who is basically just ripping off Bob Hope for his first five or six movies.

I grew up on Edgar Allen Poe, and I loved Alfred Hitchcock’s movies.

I used to love Woody Allen but feel he’s become a hack as a director. ‘Bullets Over Broadway’ is the only film of his I’ve enjoyed in the last 10 years.

If Woody Allen called me, I’d be there straight away. Who wouldn’t? Truly.

The reason I do what I do is because I was influenced by Steve Martin, by Woody Allen, by Bob Newhart, by Carol Burnett, by Lucille Ball.

I’m a huge Woody Allen fan. Good movie, bad movie, it doesn’t matter – I just like his movies.

The first time I recorded without Allen Toussaint, I wanted to do doo-wop. Everything I’ve done since then has got some kind of doo-wop essence in it.

I was fortunate to have people like Althea Gibson come and speak to me, also Leslie Allen and Arthur Ashe. So I feel obligated, part of my duty, to continue to pass on the knowledge I’ve learned to youngsters and adults alike.

He’s helped me do so much in my career, helped me be the player that I am. If there’s no Larry Brown, then there’s no MVP, Allen Iverson.

The reality is, the movies that were most impactful to me growing up, when I decided I wanted to make movies, I was going to see Woody Allen double features with my brother, back when they had double features.

Bob Dylan is out of the mentorship of Allen Ginsberg.

It’d be great to do some other TV. ‘Breaking Bad’ is definitely my home, but I’d love to have a nice hiatus gig, like a recurring role. Or to do a good film. I’d like to do a Woody Allen movie. I really didn’t have a plan, and that’s okay with me.

I’m a fan of Louis C.K., I’m a fan of Lena Dunham. I love shows about people that other people would consider unlikable, or, like, the work of Woody Allen and Albert Brooks.

I may look like an American WASPy doctor or lawyer, but I feel just like Woody Allen. Don’t cast me for my looks – I have a very ironic, existential, crazy Jew in me.

Willie Roaf kicked my butt a couple of times. Larry Allen was a guard, but one time in San Francisco he took me with one hand and threw me out of the play. Walter Jones was pretty tough, too.

Our distorted media culture sees men as subjects and women as objects; in films, Woody Allen gets older and older and still dates 20-year-old babes; movies about women are called ‘chick flicks,’ and men make fun of them.

I’m doing research for a large comic book on the Beat Generation guys – Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and those guys.

As a boy, I was a member of a club run by the famous reptile showman Ross Allen, and the club sent its members pseudoscientific papers mimeographed on construction paper with a three-hole punch.

My influences were Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce.

Well, obviously I was excited by the idea that Woody Allen was going to direct it. But at the same time, the script itself and the character was really interesting.

I grew up watching his movies; I know everyone did, but I really feel that a lot of my formative years were informed by Woody Allen films.

Working with Woody Allen is like filming Howard Hughes’s will. It’s a very mysterious and strange event. You never get a peek at the whole will.

There’s guys that don’t need to play with the ball. Tony Allen doesn’t need to have the ball to be effective.

Being in a Woody Allen film. I cherish it.

People sometimes forget all the films that we’ve done. They remember the likes of ‘Malcolm X’ and ‘Do the Right Thing.’ But I’ve been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I’ve got to keep up with Woody Allen. He’s lapping me.

I was influenced by big, strong voices – writers like Elizabeth Bowen, Virginia Woolf, Jane Bowles; gay writers like Ed White, Michael Cunningham, Allen Hollinghurst; and contemporary lesbian writers, like Dorothy Allison.

I turned down more offers to be Jack Paar or Johnny Carson or Steve Allen before the people on the ‘Donna Reed Show’ gave me a chance to earn while I learned.

My early prose style – this is so embarrassing – was sort of a suburban, Presbyterian knockoff of Woody Allen.

Klay Thompson, Ray Allen, CJ McCollum, Steve Nash and Bradley Beal are the guys that’s I’ve watched, just picking different things from each player.

George Allen was afraid of my image. He wasn’t afraid of me.

The act of thinking and interpreting is so central to Judaism that it makes more sense that we’ve become people like Woody Allen – thinkers and talkers and drafters of law.

The first play I did was ‘Philadelphia Here I Come.’ Can you imagine that? I am 37 years old I am doing my second professional play and I am on stage with John Malkovich. Joan Allen, Laurie Metcalf and Gary Sinise. One huge name after another. I was terrified and petrified, could hardly get a word out of my mouth.

I’d love to open a private museum in Paris, London, or New York, but I don’t have the money. If I were Bill Gates or Paul Allen, the first thing I would do is build a museum.

The record company doesn’t know what to do with me, because I’m not a Lily Allen, but I’m not really an indie artist, either. All the best artists have been in the middle.

Edward Snowden, who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, professes to have had access to whatever he wanted to know about anyone’s anything. If he’s telling the truth, why does he have such permeability without any government oversight? Is that OK with you?

Everyone thinks Lily Allen is this brash, bold, funny person. It was all just a bit of a facade and bravado.

Of course my uncle was a giant, but my dad, in particular, had the house filled with these great Dixieland jazz stars, really the best of them: Henry Red Allen, Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith, Buster Bailey, Cutty Cutshall, Tyree Glenn, Zutty Singleton. These are all big names in the Dixieland world.

Tony Allen is a good defender, very smart.

Recording with Meek Mill for me was like when Allen Iverson played with Michael Jordan for the first time.

It tickles me to beat George Allen.

All the people I looked up to – Roseanne, Tim Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld – were stand-up comedians who used humor to get TV shows. I’m on TV now, and I’m working towards getting my own show.

I’m doing a new musical on Broadway, which opens in October called ‘The Boy from Oz,’ where I play Peter Allen. For those of you who don’t know, he became first famous in America for marrying Liza Minelli.

Interestingly that some of the characters did not turn out the way Jim and Allen had envisioned them.

I did ‘Celebrity’ by Woody Allen. I did ‘The Gingerbread Man’ with Robert Altman. These were big talents.

Even while in school – initially, Vineberg Allen in Mussourie, and later, a number of schools in Ludhiana – I aspired to achieve great things in life. Admittedly, I wasn’t quite sure about what these great things would be.

I just admire people like Woody Allen, who every year writes an original screenplay. It’s astonishing. I always wished that I could do that.

I’ve known Russell Allen for over a decade now, and I’ve always thought he was a very underrated singer. He has one of the best voices in the business I’ve ever heard.

My heroes – people like Woody Allen – were stand-up comedians. Therefore, I always felt I should give it a go.

You know, I was really privileged to meet Woody Allen, who is now a filmmaker, let’s be honest. He’s also an actor. And he’s classic. And because I have no conception of what classic fashion is now, I respond to his slightly outdated sensibilities.

You can’t be Allen Iverson on a football team. And even Iverson got run out of Philadelphia when he was still a spectacular talent because the Sixers got tired of the headache and his bad attitude.

G-Rock from the Westside, from Allen Temple. He gave my name, The Future; he was like, ‘Man, you the future.’ Just stuck with the name.

Once I made a boyfriend dress up as Woody Allen from ‘Annie Hall.’

I am – you know, I’m getting to do everything I’ve ever wanted to do, anything my imagination can think up. I’m getting to play with some of my favorite musicians in the world, ranging from Russell Allen to Billy Sheehan to Paul Gilbert to Steve Morse.

I’m not just influenced by the ’60s – it’s who I am. I grew up with Allen Ginsberg and Che Guevara. I flirted with various forms of communism when it was way out of style. It was this really strange and creative time in music and culture, and it was fabulous.

Woody Allen movies are like Beatles songs. I can’t name my favorite without you immediately naming a better one.

My influences as a comedian and filmmaker are Albert Brooks, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Andy Kaufman and John Cassevettes.

I’m not a natural writer like, let’s say – I’m not talking about Arthur Miller; that’s a whole other thing – but let’s say Woody Allen. But the more I’ve written, the more I’ve found that there is a deep well in me somewhere that wants to express things that I’m not going to find unless I write them myself.

I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.

Why would Senator Allen want to oppose saving money for the state? It’s simply another example of Republicans fighting the governor tooth and nail against any measure where she might be able to turn the state’s budget around.

My tolerance for crazy people is, I think, high a tolerance as you’re ever going to find. I love being around David Allen Coe. I would have loved to hang out with Tiny Tim. I can listen to Sun Ra on a tape-recording rant.

I’m a total fangirl for Nancy Meyers. I love all her movies – ‘Something’s Gotta Give,’ ‘Father of the Bride,’ ‘The Parent Trap,’ etc. I also love Woody Allen – ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘Manhattan’ are my favorites.

Some people said my acting was a cross between Euell Gibbons, Rodney Allen Rippy and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

But nothing beats a Woody Allen film on a Sunday night, with a glass of wine and some leftovers.

Paul Allen with Microsoft revolutionized the software industry.

Woody Allen is really the ultimate. I love that he believed in himself enough to do what he did. And I have that same feeling – that there’s nobody that looks like me in movies, nobody would cast me as a romantic lead, but I want to do it and I feel confident that I can.

Tim Allen is a valuable part of the Disney ABC family and has been for a very, very long time.

I don’t know if you have ever seen the Woody Allen film ‘Annie Hall,’ but it is, in a way, to Los Angeles and ‘Hollywood’ what ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ is to many musicians.

A negative Allen Iverson story is the greatest Allen Iverson story, for some reason.

Growing up watching the league, Allen Iverson was my favorite player. But once I got here, Steve Nash instantly became my favorite.

I met Joan Allen at an L.A. Film Critics Awards’ dinner, and I said, ‘I want to write a movie for you.’

For me it’s just amazing that I grew up watching Tim Duncan and KG and Kobe and Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson and all those guys and now it’s like, ‘Man, I can’t believe they actually got old.’ It’s like they actually walked away. It’s crazy to think about, but the game has to keep moving.

I was born in Dallas; then I moved to Allen, Texas. But then I got sent to boarding school, where I started to get fascinated with actors like Al Pacino.

I would play like one minute or not even get in at all. I’d see on Twitter – people would say, ‘I hate that Grayson Allen guy at the end of the bench.’ I’m like, ‘What did I do?! I was in the game for 30 seconds.’

In the the late seventies and early eighties, I played background roles in thirty movies… Woody Allen movies, Scorsese films, you name it. Whatever was being shot in New York, I was doing stand-in and background work because I wanted to be close to the camera; I wanted to see what was going on.

When Tim Allen made The Santa Clause, I thought that was a delightful film. It took a modern sensibility but layered onto it a kind of sentiment.

Josh Allen has a strong arm, we all know that… I’ve been around the league to know it’s one of the stronger arms, but there a lot of guys with strong arms.

Woody Allen movies notwithstanding, therapy, in the early eighties, was not exactly a hot conversation starter. Nor was it a favoured activity for dysfunctional couples or suffering individuals.

I try to penetrate the lane like Steve Nash, pass like Jason Kidd, and handle the ball like Allen Iverson. Remember, I said ‘try to’.

In an ideal world, I’d be able to do my shows in my pajamas. Luckily I’ve got one of the best stylists in the business, Rebecca Allen – she knows what looks good on camera and gives it a sexy kick.

Your principal motive on a movie set is to get the film made, but on a Woody Allen set, there’s an ulterior thing that goes on, which is, ‘Did you have a conversation with Woody? How friendly have you been with him? Am I liked by him?’

I’m ready to do a Woody Allen comedy.

One of my big influences as a young player was Allen Iverson. All I wanted to do was the left-to-right crossover, because that’s the one he was doing most.

I love movies, but sometimes I think it’s better for actresses not to be total cinephiles. You have to be able to do the work at some point; you can’t be totally starstruck. ‘I can’t believe it’s Woody Allen!’ You have to get past that.

Ray Allen’s diet was insane. He was trying to break it down to me what he ate and how disciplined he tries to stay. When you’re a 21 year-old, you’re not used to that. He was doing Paleo and experimenting with all types of things.