Quotes by Alan Ball

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

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

"I'm at the point in my life where I don't want to work as hard. Actually, I've had to take a good hard look at workaholism and it's effect on one's mental health."

"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."

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

"I think vampires are a timeless powerful archetype that can tap into people's psyches."

"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."

"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?"

"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."

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

"There is a fetishization of victimization in our culture. And I just am not interested in victimhood."

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

"We live in a time where there's an alienation factor. There's a certain disconnection. We don't have any real sense of community anymore."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

"Death is a companion for all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we're aware of it or not, and it's not necessarily a terrible thing."

"I'm 53. I don't care about high school students. I find them irritating and uninformed."

"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."

"I'm aware of 'Twilight,' but I've never seen the movies or read any of the books. Frankly, the story leaves me cold - why do a vampire story about abstinence?"

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

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