Top 40 John Hawkes Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “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.”

— John Hawkes

2. “The writer should always serve as his own angleworm – and the sharper the barb with which he fishes himself out of blackness, the better.”

— John Hawkes

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

— John Hawkes

4. “I do not feel an exile from America in any sense.”

— John Hawkes

5. “I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.”

— John Hawkes

6. “I think we’re all mysteries to ourselves.”

— John Hawkes

7. “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.”

— John Hawkes

8. “Starting in the mid-’80s, I played in a band called Meat Joy, and we made our own record, toured.”

— John Hawkes

9. “Part of the way that I work is to observe.”

— John Hawkes

10. “I don’t mean to be highfalutin about it, but I try to limit my visibility.”

— John Hawkes

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

— John Hawkes

12. “To be anywhere near an enormous ocean liner when you are just like a fish in the water is frightening.”

— John Hawkes

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

— John Hawkes

14. “When we lived in Juneau, Alaska, it was a town of about 7,000 people, and totally isolated; the only way to get to it was by ship.”

— John Hawkes

15. “I’m just looking for the best story being told by the best people and the best part that I can find. If those things add up, I want to be a part of it whether it’s a studio film or, more likely in that instance, an independent film.”

— John Hawkes

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

16. “If you’re telling a story it’s always best not to play the ending.”

— John Hawkes

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

17. “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.”

— John Hawkes

18. “I generally play strong people and scary people.”

— John Hawkes

Featured in: Strong Quotes

19. “It’s hard to get concert tickets.”

— John Hawkes

20. “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.”

— John Hawkes

21. “The corridor smelled of water in the bottoms of purple vases and the piano was banging just beyond this emptiness.”

— John Hawkes

22. “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.”

— John Hawkes

23. “The only thing that exists is torment, lyricism, and the magnificence of language.”

— John Hawkes

24. “I’ve never had any delusions about being a leading man, and it’s not sour grapes to say that in the best films that I’ve always enjoyed, the cliched leading man type isn’t a part of the picture.”

— John Hawkes

25. “No appetite. No sensation in a dry stomach. No desire. No orchids sweet enough to taste. Not the sort of woman to eat sandwiches on a bus. At least not the sort of woman who would eat in the dark. Not anymore.”

— John Hawkes

26. “I lived in Texas for 10 years.”

— John Hawkes

27. “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.”

— John Hawkes

28. “It’s hard to tell whether the ship or airplane – they’re all the same, I’m convinced – is male or female; it may shift back and forth.”

— John Hawkes

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

— John Hawkes

30. “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.”

— John Hawkes

31. “You never really forget who you are. If you did, you’d need to seek some professional help.”

— John Hawkes

32. “It seems like every year Hollywood makes an attempt to retell the Manson story, and I just couldn’t be less interested in it. It’s not really our crowning achievement as a civilisation. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be done, but it just bores me.”

— John Hawkes

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

33. “It’s tough being an actor making music, because even I have a knee-jerk reaction to that.”

— John Hawkes

34. “Some time ago I discovered that I could no longer speak aloud or read aloud from a stage, even for the sake of hearing the effect that my writer’s voice produced on listeners. Now, curiously, the more I merely try to live, the more reclusive I become, the vainer I am. At last I am as vain as the one who instantly voices his silence inside me.”

— John Hawkes

35. “Really, I didn’t like Alaska. It rained, almost every day, at least 300 days out of the year.”

— John Hawkes

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

— John Hawkes

37. “Even the small amount of infamy I have makes me uncomfortable – on a personal level and on a professional level.”

— John Hawkes

38. “A lot of times, you just don’t get the jobs you want to get.”

— John Hawkes

39. “I don’t have actor training myself.”

— John Hawkes

40. “I met Robert Rodriguez working on a movie called ‘Roadracers.’”

— John Hawkes

41. “There’s a lot of skeletons in my closet!”

— John Hawkes

42. “Motive is never easy. Sometimes it occurs to one only later.”

— John Hawkes

43. “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.”

— John Hawkes

44. “I had to go to Sunday school once or twice in my life, and that’s where I commented someplace on hearing.”

— John Hawkes

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

— John Hawkes