Best Gene Hackman Quotes & Sayings

Gene Hackman was a superstar in the '70s - with that face! — Joel Edgerton

Hollywood loves to typecast, and I guess they saw me as a violent guy. — Gene Hackman

I have trouble with direction, because I have trouble with authority. I was not a good Marine. — Gene Hackman

It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on screen. I think of myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that. — Gene Hackman

I write in the morning from about eight till noon, and sometimes again a bit in the afternoon. In the morning I start off by going over what I had done the previous day, which my wife has happily typed up for me. — Gene Hackman

If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being. — Gene Hackman

I always wanted to be Gene Hackman and I always wanted to be, you know ... I wanted to be one of these guys. I always wanted to be Bob Duvall. — John C. McGinley

That's the great thing about plankton. It pretty much keeps to itself. — Gene Hackman

He went into the sitting room, put on a Duke Ellington record he had bought after seeing Gene Hackman sitting on the overnight bus in The Conversation to the sound of some fragile piano notes that were the loneliest Harry had ever heard. — Jo Nesbo

I still assume that, any day, I'm going to be exposed as a fraud. That, like I once heard Gene Hackman say, the acting police are going to burst in and take away my card. — Chris Pine

I'm not a sentimental guy. — Gene Hackman

If I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best. — Gene Hackman

My early days in Broadway were all comedies. I never did a straight play on Broadway. — Gene Hackman

I went in the Marines when I was 16. I spent four and a half years in the Marines and then came right to New York to be an actor. And then seven years later, I got my first job. — Gene Hackman

My grandfather had been a newspaper reporter, as was my uncle. They were pretty good writers and so I thought maybe somewhere down the line I would do some writing. — Gene Hackman

Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors. — Gene Hackman

That's something that would really sell. I mean, I admire that you tell stories of make-believe people in worlds that don't exist and that have no relevance to how we live. That can be nice, but people also like things that are uplifting and practical.
(From the short story: The Late Novels of Gene Hackman) — Rivka Galchen

You go through stages in your career that you feel very good about yourself. Then you feel awful, like, 'Why didn't I choose something else?' But overall I'm pretty satisfied that I made the right choice when I decided to be an actor. — Gene Hackman

The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways. — Gene Hackman

I'm disappointed that success hasn't been a Himalayan feeling. — Gene Hackman

My wife and I take what we call our Friday comedy day off. We watch standup comics on TV. The raunchier the better. We love Eddie Izzard. — Gene Hackman

Five players on the floor functioning as a single unit: team, team, team-no one more important than the other. — Gene Hackman

A favorite cast? Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and my wife. — William H. Macy

I wrote three mysteries and then a contemporary spy novel that was unbelievably derivative - completely based on 'The Conversation,' the movie with Gene Hackman. Amazingly, the character in the book looks exactly like ... Gene Hackman. — Alan Furst

Hey, I'm just trying to become the Michael Caine/Gene Hackman of my generation. — John C. Reilly

I've always admired Gene Hackman, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck. I'm showing my age here. — Tim DeKay

Don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining. — Gene Hackman

I left home when I was 16 because I was looking for adventure. — Gene Hackman

I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press. — Gene Hackman

When you're still, and some actors are really brilliant at that, you bring a kind of energy to you as opposed to sending the energy out. There are some actors, like Gary Cooper or Kevin Spacey, that are absolutely brilliant - Gene Hackman is another - at being and allowing the audience to just do the work. — Gabriel Byrne

I don't see myself as a violent guy. — Gene Hackman

The worst job I ever had was working nights in the Chrysler Building. I was part of a team of about five guys, and we polished the leather furniture. — Gene Hackman