Ethan Hawke Quotes & Sayings

I've had a lot of experience in independent film, and about how to choose. You've got to be very discerning about where you put your five bucks, and where you cut and what you don't cut. — Ethan Hawke

Now it's different, and to me it was shockingly humble, but there with my girl in my arms and our child in her belly I knew I had reached the moment my life had been waiting for. I was going to be a father and a husband.
I spanked her bottom and cranked up the tunes. — Ethan Hawke

I did this movie, Predestination, and it's one of my favorite movies I've ever made, because sci-fi really lets you talk about ideas in a way that's not pretentious. — Ethan Hawke

In all of our society, but especially in Hollywood, there is an obsession with perfection that can lead to self-loathing and neurosis and all that kind of stuff. — Ethan Hawke

Alejandro Amenabar is a different kind of director than I lot of the directors I've asked for. He really asks you to enter his dream as opposed to, you know, a guy like Sidney Lumet or something is going to ask you to create a character almost like a documentary. He wants you to make the people really real and he's going to capture it like a documentarian. — Ethan Hawke

Don't you find it odd," she continued, "that when you're a kid, everyone, all the world, encourages you to follow your dreams. But when you're older, somehow they act offended if you even try. — Ethan Hawke

People are conditioned to just you know, like, you know we're like little birdies going to the bird feeder you know, or the little cows going to the salt lick. We just like what we've seen before. — Ethan Hawke

The older I get, the more obvious it is that you're not really in control of your life, you're a part of a larger wave, no matter who you are. — Ethan Hawke

But the truth is, I've never wanted to be a movie star - and I've been pretty clear about that. — Ethan Hawke

The only thing I can point to of why I survived is I have a family that loves me and never wanted any money from me. — Ethan Hawke

I enjoyed meeting Emma [Watson]. I have a soft spot in my heart for child actors growing up. I know how hard that is. Having gone through that experience myself, I have a lot of sensitivity to it. For lack of a better word, I just feel like I love these kids, and I want them all to grow up and love themselves, and not get caught up in the wrong things, and to learn all the different things this profession has to give, and to understand it. — Ethan Hawke

Sometimes people save the best part of themselves for their art. — Ethan Hawke

I'd really rather that nobody had a gun, and then nobody would have to worry about it. That would be more my theory. In America, there's this knee-jerk response that more walls and more guns make people safer, and I'm entirely suspect of that way of thinking. — Ethan Hawke

If I do three movies in a year, I don't feel like acting ever again. — Ethan Hawke

The girls who like me aren't the ones I like. Or, if I do and they want to commit, I suddenly need tons of time with my friends. — Ethan Hawke

[She] and I were giving each other the only thing we truly have to offer: our time. We were going to give each other the living minutes of our life. — Ethan Hawke

Now I have a theory that if a woman wants to keep a man she only needs to say two things: She believes in him and he's got a big a cock. That's all it takes. It doesn't even have to be true. — Ethan Hawke

There have always been two ways to be rich: by accumulating vast sums or by needing very little. — Ethan Hawke

You can't keep wanting to be 20 years old. Everybody knows that, but what's in the next room? — Ethan Hawke

Pay attention: what you need to know is usually in front of you. There are no secrets, just things people choose not to notice. — Ethan Hawke

If you don't give inspiration an opportunity, it will never arrive. — Ethan Hawke

Habit, routine, and too much consistency numb our minds and pave the road for us to sleepwalk through our lives. Nothing stays the same. Everything passes, and everything changes. However, do not move too much. As an apple tree cannot bear fruit if it is too often transplanted, neither will a knight who is always building a new castle. — Ethan Hawke

A knight sets out to illuminate the darkness in society, not from its leaves but from its roots. This is how justice will be realized. Find the source — Ethan Hawke

The thing that really breeds career longevity in this profession is doing good work. You can make $20 million a movie, but does that mean you'll still have a job when you're 60? It's a profession that eats people up and wants constant turnaround, so you have to dedicate yourself to learning and making the most of whatever gift you may have. — Ethan Hawke

Directing is like putting together a collage. — Ethan Hawke

It is quite rare to find people who are really dedicated to a level of excellence. Most of us are really quite lazy most of the time. — Ethan Hawke

All that stuff with the tabloids is a kind of luxury tax I pay for all the good things I do in my life. — Ethan Hawke

My favorite stories are human, so I'm always looking for. — Ethan Hawke

It's kind of like this," Decker said: "You wake up in the middle of the night and you're dying for a glass of milk. So you stumble out of bed, stub your toe in the darkness, scream with pain, and limp your way to the refrigerator. You open it up and the light is brilliant. You're saved. Then you fold back the paper container, open up the milk, take a deep breath, and put it to your lips. Only
yhrch!
the milk is spoiled. Sure, you're bummed. You fold the thing close and put it back in the fridge. It's dark again. But as you're making your way to your lonely old bed, you think to yourself, Wait a minute, maybe that milk wasn't so bad. And I am still thirsty? So you do an about-face and go back to the fridge. The light warms you up again. You take a sip and yup, it's still spoiled. That, to me, is the fitting metaphor for most every relationship I've ever been in. — Ethan Hawke

My process differs ... my process for a Richard Linklater film is very different than a process for Training Day. — Ethan Hawke

I'm always trying to look for how I can find human stories that aren't just dramas. — Ethan Hawke

If you can channel the best part of you that is bigger than yourself, where it's not about your ego and not about getting ahead, then you can have fun and you aren't jealous of others. You see other people's talent as another branch of your own. You can keep it rooted in joy. Life is long and there are plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. The point of it all is to learn. — Ethan Hawke

I've turned down good directors before because I knew the part didn't speak to me and I've worked with less talented directors before because the part I had such passion for. — Ethan Hawke

I have a daughter and the thing I wish for her is not love, fame, money or anything like that. It's just one great best friend. You know, if you have somebody that has your back, you're gonna be all right. — Ethan Hawke

When an analogy is really singing, it's what you want it to be. — Ethan Hawke

Some people burn out, and some people like Clint Eastwood, he was a wild, international movie star in his 30s, and he's doing the best work of his life now. Go figure. — Ethan Hawke

I've always watched actors on the red carpet getting drunk and making idiots of themselves and now I'm happy to join their ranks — Ethan Hawke

Ordinary effort, ordinary result ... Luck is the residue of design. Be steadfast. The anvil outlasts the hammer. — Ethan Hawke

I have totally hitched my wagon to the horse of storytelling, and the idea that none of us know why we're born, or why we're gonna die, or what we're planted here, or what's on the other side of the galaxy, or when time began, or when time end. The whole nature of reality is pretty up for grabs, really. — Ethan Hawke

When you start becoming really successful, the demons start to tempt you - the demons of vanity and self importance, drug abuse, the feelings of fraudulence. But, it's also a thrill. That's what I found weird. — Ethan Hawke

I started acting when I was 13 years old and I feel like I really admire actors who are these kind of amazing shape-changing people, that they almost can turn themselves into other people. — Ethan Hawke

Depression is a real demon in the woods for a lot of creative people, you know? It's part of what the documentary is trying to be about for me, finding balance, where the beauty that is attainable in the creative arts can be matched with the scratchy roughness of regular life. — Ethan Hawke

Good genre movies are a little bit like trying to write a haiku. There are certain things that you have to do to fulfill the audience's expectations, but inside that, you have complete freedom to talk about whatever you want. Who wants to see a movie about gun violence in America and class? But, if you set it in this terrifying, fun, roller coaster ride of a movie, you can talk about whatever you want. That's been the game that genre movies play, when they do it well. — Ethan Hawke

I take pleasure in the little things. Double cheeseburgers, those are good, the sky ten minutes before it rains,the moment your laugh turns into a cackle. And I sit here, and smoke my Camel straights, and I ride my own melt. — Ethan Hawke

My job - and it's really true - is that it's constantly evolving and changing. When I was doing the Chet Baker movie I was obsessed with playing the trumpet, and to my absolute shock I haven't picked the trumpet up since we wrapped. It was so much work. I thought I was going to keep playing the rest of my life, 'cause it was fun, it's just a lot of work. And it's a really unique job that exposes you to a lot. — Ethan Hawke

I kill flies, I eat meat, you know, whatever. — Ethan Hawke

The most creative and most periods of my life that were, had the most growth, were the ones where I was perceived to be failing. Perceived success is a, is really hard 'cause it doesn't really, it's not asking you to grow, see failure is asking you to grow. — Ethan Hawke

The biggest problem in my life is trying to be the kind of man that I want to be, the father that I want to be, and how to process the failure of my marriage. — Ethan Hawke

I'd be lying if I said I had confidence in every choice I've made, that I have faith in every film I do on every shot. — Ethan Hawke

I've always been interested in directing. I started acting when I was thirteen years old, so I've had some desire to do something else in my life. — Ethan Hawke

One of the things that's really lousy about making movies is that you have such little interaction with your audience. — Ethan Hawke

Remember, a friend does not need you to impress him. A friend loves you because you are true to yourself, not because you agree with him. Beware of grand gestures; the real mettle of friendship is forged in life's daily workings. — Ethan Hawke

With this sunrise somehow I felt I was exactly where I was supposed to be ... Have faith, the light seemed to announce. — Ethan Hawke

I really did Regression to work with Alejandro [Amenabar]. I found him very interesting. His movie, The Others, is one of the better scary movies of the last period of time. — Ethan Hawke

Which wolf will win?...
whichever one you feed — Ethan Hawke

Seeing the play ( A Lie of the Mind ) clearly is part of why I wanted to direct it. I see hope at the end of this play. People talk about how dark the play was, but I feel like, if you really look at the darkness, you're able to go through it, and you realize that you can handle dark moments in life and that everything will be all right. — Ethan Hawke

And you and I know you're the best thing that ever happened to me, and, yes, that's an expression, something people say, that has no meaning, but what I mean is there isn't anybody in the whole world who has loved me the way you have, not my mother, not my old man, not my friends.
There's nothing preventing me and you from loving each other and being some kinda world-class shining beacon of love except how bad do we want it and what are we willing to do for it?
Now, I know I did you wrong, and I was freaking out and being stupid and I was mean to you. You know sometimes I get all fucking confused and I can't see outside of my own asshole. I'm unhappy. Why am I unhappy? It's gotta be somebody's fault, right? It couldn't just be that I'm a self-centered fuck spinning around inside my own dank cloud of concerns.
There isn't anything I can think of that I really want or that the best part of me wants, that loving you won't start doing. I love you. — Ethan Hawke

There's this kind of incredibly mistaken idea that because it's so much cheaper to roll the camera than it used to be and it's so much easier to accumulate a ton of footage, that then you can just go shoot a ton of footage and the editor will make sense out of it. But if you don't have something deliberate made, you're not gonna save it in the editing room. — Ethan Hawke

There is no trick to writing a believable love story, a heartbreaking scene or real-sounding dialogue. All you need is to tell the truth. It's always heartbreaking. — Ethan Hawke

Few years ago I did a movie, Good Kill, about drone pilots and for four or five months I'm obsessed with the Air Force. — Ethan Hawke

I did one sci-fi movie. I did 'Gattaca.' I liked 'Gattaca' because that was always the kind of science fiction I really dug, the non-action oriented sci-fi. — Ethan Hawke

Nightmares are a strange thing. Your worst fear is sometimes something you enjoy thinking about, for some strange reason. I don't know why that is, but it's some kind of fantasy that people play out. "What would I do to protect my children? I'd do anything." And then, you watch it play out. I'm petrified of such a thing. — Ethan Hawke

It is very difficult for any couple who are married if both people are ambitious. I don't know if it's just too hard to be married to a woman that wants to be a movie star. — Ethan Hawke

One of the things I can do is to try to put myself in different kinds of movies and that kind of subtly changes my work. By the time my obituary is written, I want there to be a great western and a great comedy. — Ethan Hawke

How to make a scary movie human, take a movie like Sinister. How can I make that guy so real so that the scary elements of it are more scary and it functions as a genre movie - as the way it's supposed to, you want to hear a ghost story at midnight, that's a good one - but how do you fill it up with humanity inside, in staying true to the genre? You know? Does that make sense? — Ethan Hawke

Those who cannot easily forgive will not collect many friends. Look for the best in others and yourself. — Ethan Hawke

I can't tell you how many times in the '90s I'd meet somebody, we'd be having a nice time, and they'd sigh and go, 'This is exactly like Before Sunrise.' And I'd have to get up and leave. — Ethan Hawke

Hello, you've reached the winter of our discontent. — Ethan Hawke

I love working on scripts. I love coming up with ideas about what people would dress like or talk like. I love all that. — Ethan Hawke

Often we imagine that we will work hard until we arrive at some distant goal, and then we will be happy. This is a delusion. Happiness is the result of a life lived with purpose. Happiness is not an objective. It is the movement of life itself, a process, and an activity. It arises from curiosity and discovery. Seek pleasure and you will quickly discover the shortest path to suffering. Other people, friends, brothers, sisters, neighbors, spouses, even your mother and I are not responsible for your happiness. Your life is your responsibility, and you always have the choice to do your best. Doing your best will bring happiness. Do not be overconcerned with avoiding pain or seeking pleasure. If you are concentrating on the results of your actions, you are not dedicated to your task. — Ethan Hawke

The more kind of head trippy sci-fi. I always like that. I was a big 'Twilight Zone' freak. — Ethan Hawke

It's difficult to do a genre film well, and it doesn't matter if you're talking vampire movies or 'Dawn of the Dead' or 'The Thing' or 'Escape From New York.' Those kind of movies, they understand what the old-school B-movie is supposed to be, they get the throwback of it. — Ethan Hawke

Oddly, with discipline, structure, and order, you will find freedom, anything is possible. Without it, locating your saddle may take all morning. — Ethan Hawke

Arrogance is born of insecurity. Pride is different. It is born of dignity, self-worth, and self-respect. We all see the world through the prism of our identity. If our self-worth is low, it affects everything we do. The point of life is to contribute to others, but without a certain self-regard, it is sometimes difficult to make breakfast. — Ethan Hawke

I always felt that a marriage works best at a farm ... where you're together and everybody has clear-cut roles; they have chores, 'you take care of this' and you know. But it's hard. — Ethan Hawke

Sometimes in the life of an actor you're not getting offered any jobs that speak to you. The trouble with acting is that you're only as good as your opportunities. — Ethan Hawke

I love really exploring ... you know, a cop drama for example is a great way to explore class in this country and explore, you know, really, identity in the country and who we are in a way that is extremely exciting, but it's also real, you know, it's also real people and real drama. The same with the military. I mean, a good science fiction story is also great. — Ethan Hawke

We passed gas stations and chain food restaurants, with their billboards advertising happiness. I know the images in magazines and on TV aren't true representations of the world; I mean, that's obvious. But I still get this sinking feeling of disappointment, as if it is the world I should see. — Ethan Hawke

And the best films feel like a fist punching you in the solar plexus and all elements of the filmmaking process - the acting, the design, the cinematography, the music, is all working to one end. — Ethan Hawke

Sometimes people, their creative drive comes from an energy to try to heal themselves. — Ethan Hawke

To head north, a knight may use the North Star to guide him, but he will not arrive at the North Star. A knight's duty is to proceed in that direction. — Ethan Hawke

It's so hard for every young person, trying to figure out the adult you want to be. — Ethan Hawke

It's interesting to work with Emma [Watson] so quickly after Harry Potter. When we shot this movie, it wasn't that long after Harry Potter was finished, and it's knowing that's a big transition in her life. She's a very talented young woman. — Ethan Hawke

'Brooklyn's Finest,' this is the kind of movie that's why I want to be an actor, to tell real-life stories. This is where I feel my job is, to interpret life. — Ethan Hawke

Every time he opens his mouth I have absolutely no idea what he's gonna say. He's the most honest person I've ever met. He's a quick study and rarely needs to make the same mistake twice. He really tries to learn, and does, and he makes me laugh, and the world's generally a lighter place when he's in my sight. — Ethan Hawke

We live in a funny time. If you don't go corporate, you can't compete. You're relegated as irrelevant. People used to admire that. — Ethan Hawke

It's always a unique challenge when you're working with somebody where English is their second language. — Ethan Hawke

I do not want you children to use my untimely death, or any setback that life may deliver, as an excuse not to take responsibility for yourselves. — Ethan Hawke

You are always in the right place at exactly the right time, and you always have been. — Ethan Hawke

I'm horrified to admit that I just love Salinger. I was devastated to find out that other people feel the same way. — Ethan Hawke

The theater, for me, has always been a place where I'm free to be more creative, a place to sharpen my tools. — Ethan Hawke

Whenever actors tout off about doing their own stunts, it's always ... they're so protective of you that I always know these stunt guys are so good [and] they're never going to put you in danger. But it's fun to do something kind of exciting, even something as simple as driving 70 through a tunnel with five motorcycles ... it sounds simple, but it's actually really nerve-wracking. — Ethan Hawke

I believe in the healing restorative power of art and communication. And so that's probably my rule. But that doesn't apply to bedtimes. And stuff like that. — Ethan Hawke

I was being taken around by a press agent at the Venice Film Festival at age 18. Was it fun? Sure. But it was a dangerous path to be walking on as far as having a substantive life. Because the casualty rate at the Venice Film Festival for 18-year-olds? High. — Ethan Hawke

Like a dead branch falling from a tree, which them decomposes and nourishes the soil, your disappointments can transform into the elements of change and growth. — Ethan Hawke

It just makes sense to remember gratitude and the place that gratitude should have in your life, and that none of us are owed these wonderful experiences, and we should always make the best of them. — Ethan Hawke

It was when I was on the set of Dead Poets Society.There was actor,his name was Norman Lloyd. One day he took us all aside and said, "You guys don't even understand what a powerful experience you're having. You don't really understand what a gift this is." We were going, "What does he mean?" It was that really wonderful opportunities aren't to be taken for granted. I often found that it had embedded itself in my memory. — Ethan Hawke

As a young man ... you don't know anything about yourself. And add on to that, you're on the cover of magazines. People are interviewing you about what you think. You feel like a real phony. — Ethan Hawke

There's only so often you're going to have an opportunity to contribute at a high level and that you should be grateful whenever one presents itself and not take it lightly. — Ethan Hawke

I auditioned for Robert Redford once and I was so starstruck I couldn't even speak. I had a mic wire at a screen test clipped to me and then I got kind of nervous and I paced in a circle and then took a step and tripped and fell on my face. You just have to forgive yourself and keep going on. — Ethan Hawke