John Hawkes Quotes

My fear now is of cliche, of complacency, of not being able to feel authenticity in myself and those around me.

There's a lot of skeletons in my closet!

I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.

I generally play strong people and scary people.

It seems like every year Hollywood makes an attempt to retell the Manson story, and I just couldn't be less interested in it. It's not really our crowning achievement as a civilisation. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done, but it just bores me.

I met Robert Rodriguez working on a movie called 'Roadracers.'

People have said unkind things and you kind of have to, if you happen to read it, you have to just, you know, move on.

For the last 20 years of my life, I've had the mantra to do amazing parts with amazing people in amazing projects, so I'm attracted to good story, writing and character and good people. That's what I'm always searching for and I don't think that's ever going to change.

I think we're all mysteries to ourselves.

I want people to believe me when I play a part and they are less apt to if they know a lot about me and have associations about me.

It's hard to get concert tickets.

It's probably odd for someone to read an interview where the interviewee is worried about exposure while they're talking in an interview.

It's tough being an actor making music, because even I have a knee-jerk reaction to that.

Part of the way that I work is to observe.

I lived in Texas for 10 years. There were a lot of people chewing, including my dad.

I don't think there are in life, pure darkness or pure light. Everyone's got a little of everything.

A lot of times, you just don't get the jobs you want to get.

Certainly I've had the experience of thinking a person was one thing, and finding out they were another.

Even the small amount of infamy I have makes me uncomfortable - on a personal level and on a professional level.

For me and for I'm sure any actor, each role is a different challenge to prepare for in a different way.

I don't have actor training, myself.

I don't mean to be highfalutin about it, but I try to limit my visibility.

I have to be careful of what TV shows I choose, particularly ones that have commercials in them, because it's going to be a different kind of television show.

I went to a performance of 'The Crucible' at the Guthrie when I was a sophomore in high school, and I knew right away that that's what I wanted to do

I don't have any training as an actor, but I guess I'm an intense pretender. When you read something over and over, it gets into you a little bit. You can't help but begin to feel it, even if you're a healthy person as I think I am

I had to go to Sunday school once or twice in my life, and that's where I commented someplace on hearing.

The only thing that exists is torment, lyricism, and the magnificence of language.

To be anywhere near an enormous ocean liner when you are just like a fish in the water is frightening.

It's hard to tell whether the ship or airplane - they're all the same, I'm convinced - is male or female; it may shift back and forth.

When we lived in Juneau, Alaska, it was a town of about 7,000 people, and totally isolated; the only way to get to it was by ship.

Really, I didn't like Alaska. It rained, almost every day, at least 300 days out of the year.

I do not feel an exile from America in any sense.

You never really forget who you are. If you did, you'd need to seek some professional help

I do all kinds of roles - nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho - and occasionally someone kind of normal. It's weird, when I lived in Austin I was always cast as pretty normal people. But when I moved to Los Angeles I was immediately branded a psycho

Motive is never easy. Sometimes it occurs to one only later.

As an actor, I think a mistake that any storyteller can make is to play the ending.

If you're telling a story it's always best not to play the ending.

Starting in the mid-'80s, I played in a band called Meat Joy, and we made our own record, toured.

'The New York Times' thing... I think any actor would be thrilled to be profiled in that paper.

I'm just looking for the best story being told by the best people and the best part that I can find. If those things add up, I want to be a part of it whether it's a studio film or, more likely in that instance, an independent film.

I've never had any delusions about being a leading man, and it's not sour grapes to say that in the best films that I've always enjoyed, the cliched leading man type isn't a part of the picture.

The writer should always serve as his own angleworm —and the sharper the barb with which he fishes himself out of blackness, the better.

It's nice to sometimes get things out of life, rather than stealing from other artists. I'm trying to steal from the real people.