Quotes By John Hawkes

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

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.

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 maintain that if you're a novelist and you go into an art museum, you'll come out a better novelist. And if you paint a picture for an hour you're a better actor at the end of it.

When something gets attention so quickly, people sometimes will look for reasons to find fault and tear it down.

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

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

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.

Part of the way that I work is to observe.

Being a kid, as all kids do, you feel out of place or like kind of a freak. You wake up feeling like your head got put onto someone else's body that day.

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

As an actor you have to have a strong vivid imagination as you're working and when the camera's rolling, but there's certainly a part of you that is aware of real life, that you're making a movie.

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

I lived in Texas for 10 years.

I understand why people achieve a level of fame and disappear, I never understood it before, but it's an attractive prospect to walk away from it all.

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

As an actor, you don't often get a chance to know exactly the impact of what the audience is seeing, even though you can ask where the frame is. A move that feels tiny can be huge, and vice versa.

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.

When I over-prepare, I try to let it all go and forget all about it when the camera rolls, so I can just be present with the other actors and allow what's going to happen to happen without too much preconception.

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.

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

I generally play strong people and scary people.

When I realized that you can't necessarily be cast in a really great part living in Austin, even when Hollywood comes to town, I got a demo reel together and headed out west.

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.

Hitchhiking was such a pure form of existence. You'd wake up in the morning, and you'd have no idea what your day was going to be. And that's something I've never been able to shake. I loved that.