John Hawkes Quotes

I think that no matter how dark a person is, the more you learn about them, the more you understand about their life, the more you can sympathize with them or even root for them.

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

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.

I lived in Texas for 10 years.

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 guess you can say that every actor is a 'character actor' on some level. But I think some actors have a wider range. I think that's how you get that mantle.

I generally play strong people and scary people.

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

I don't really try to judge any character that I play, afterwards I figure it out, but while I'm working on the character, I have to find something in them to relate to.

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

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 don't have actor training myself.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.