Hackman Quotes & Sayings

When overpowering authority or leadership intervenes in a team, it can affect the team by (1) throwing the team off track, (2) decreasing the motivation of the team, (3) reducing the commitment of the team members, and (4) causing more problems than solutions. — J. Richard Hackman

launch the team well, and only then to help members take the greatest possible advantage of their favorable performance circumstances. Indeed, my best estimate is that 60 percent of the variation in team effectiveness depends on the degree to which the six enabling conditions are in place, 30 percent on the quality of a team's launch, and just 10 percent on the leader's hands-on, real-time coaching (see the "60-30-10 rule" in Chapter 10). — J. Richard Hackman

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

Like a duck on the pond. On the surface everything looks calm, but beneath the water those little feet are churning a mile a minute. — 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

I lost touch with my son in terms of advice early on. Maybe it had to do with being gone so much, doing location films when he was at an age where he needed support and guidance. — Gene Hackman

Once, I optioned a novel and tried to do a screenplay on it, which was great fun, but I was too respectful. I was only 100 pages into the novel and I had about 90 pages of movie script going. I realized I had a lot to learn. — Gene Hackman

Things parents say to children are oftentimes not heard, but in some cases you pick up on things that your parent would like to see you have done. — 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

Hackman is able to live in the moment which means there is nothing for him at that split second than what is occurring in the scene. — James Lipton

I got to work with Gene Hackman for six weeks, side by side, 12 hours a day. — Marguerite Moreau

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

If you are in an improv jazz ensemble or a small chamber group, you learn to think fast on your feet and how to be flexible and to collaborate and compromise, and that may yield a creative outcome. — J. Richard Hackman

Hackman's paradox: Groups have natural advantages: they have more resources than individuals; greater diversity of resources; more flexibility in deploying the resources; many opportunities for collective learning; and, the potential for synergy. Yet studies show that their actual performance often is subpar relative to "nominal" groups (i.e. individuals given the same task but their results are pooled.) The two most common reasons: groups are assigned work that is better done by individuals or are structured in ways that cap their full potential. — J. Richard Hackman

Honesty isn't enough for me. That becomes very boring. If you can convince people what you're doing is real and it's also bigger than life - that's exciting. — Gene Hackman

I'm not an Adonis, that's for damn sure. I've never really thought of myself that way, and it doesn't matter to me. My favorite actors aren't Adonises. Dustin Hoffman is a flawed-looking man; he's amazing to me. Tom Hanks is flawed-looking; people love him. Same with Gene Hackman. — Shia Labeouf

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

Gene Hackman is one of the great American actors of all time. — Lane Garrison

I don't trust air I can't see. — Gene Hackman

I don't like to talk about myself that much. — Gene Hackman

From 1980 to 1990, I shot more films than any other actor in the Screen Actors Guild, apart from Gene Hackman. — Steve Guttenberg

When I think of character actors, I think of Spencer Tracy; I think of Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall. When I was a young lad watching films, my eyes were on them - watching 'On the Waterfront,' my eyes are on Rod Steiger and Karl Malden, not on Brando. — Eddie Marsan

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

I do not like assassins, or men of low character. — Gene Hackman

Nothing counts so much as family, the rest are just strangers. (as Nicholas Earpp in Wyatt Earp, 1994) — Gene Hackman

Seventy-five per cent of being successful as an actor is pure luck. The rest is just endurance. — Gene Hackman

I went to L.A. to be Brad Pitt; now I just want to be Gene Hackman. I came to Nashville to be Kenny Chesney. I'd be very fortunate to be George Strait. — Christian Kane

I idolize Gene Hackman. He is not a natural star, not an incandescent personality like Jack Nicholson, but he makes luminous the problems of being an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation. — Brian Dennehy

The fact that they let me in a movie with Gene Hackman has left me with no faith in show buisness. — Ray Romano

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

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

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

It was just the thrill of a lifetime. Brando and Hackman were two of my heroes. — Richard Donner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And Hackman had really choked up when he was telling it. It was very moving. — Wes Anderson

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 have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary But don't count on it. — J. Richard Hackman

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

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