maybe i am

on being called pretentious

What are you gonna do? They're right. Maybe I am. There are worse things in the world than being pretentious. I think you should look at life like 'I want to keep learning, keep growing.' It makes things more fun, like 'That didn't work out, but I learned something.' Or 'That worked really well. I want to do more things like that.' Some people are going to think you're pretentious, but that's. . . Yeah. I always think those people are just hateful. It plays into this idea that people like actors if they're a little dumb. We're in a culture right now where people want their actors to be really sexy but not very interesting. That way they're not threatened.

papermag interview with christine muhlke

I remember one of my really close friends saying, 'Hawke. You gonna play Hamlet?' I'm like, 'Why not, man?' He said, 'People are going to kill you for it. You write a book, and now you're going to play Hamlet?' 'Look, it's got nothing to do with you, bro. It won't mean shit to you when I'm dead whether I did Hamlet or didn't do Hamlet. Your mama doesn't care if I do Hamlet. Your mama just wants you to be nice to her.' 

independent.co.uk interview  - july 2004