"i was full of jack london and jack kerouac"

"I sometimes think I'm so boring. I'll read an article about how Bob Dylan manipulated his image, put on these false personas, pretended he was like Woody Guthrie, and I think, what's the obligation in an interview to play into some mystique? But if you do, I think you end up dead."
"Acting was something that came very easily to me. It fell in my lap. But the people I admired the most were not really movie stars. I was full of Jack London and Jack Kerouac."

Twice during his 20s he took a two-year leave of absence, once to go to NYU and study English (he dropped out when a part came up), and then to write a novel. In each case he says he was testing himself to see if acting was just a phase, and in each case he returned to it with modified expectations.

emma brockes. the gaurdian, december 2000

There’s this idea that a person’s life is like a staircase...

“The air conditioning is broken, and this playwright has never done a play and he’s swearing and jonesing for a cigarette, and the director is pouring with sweat and we’re reading this thing. Sometimes I get in these cynical places—‘Does any of it even matter?’—but here’s this writer who fucking cares and this director who cares. He’s built this underground theater company for 15 years so that we can do this. And these actors are coming in and they’re not simply memorizing their lines, they’re giving us these personalities. And they’re dripping with sweat, too. I get confused sometimes, but every now and then I stumble on something I feel certain about, and that feels very good.”

Ethan Hawke

Corduroy Magazine Issue 8

Theater vs. Film

Blood From A Stone opened January 12th and will run til February 19th in NYC

It's a big surprise to me that theatre is my first love. I didn't know that when I was young. I loved theatre, but, as technology explodes more and more, I'm learning to love it even more.

There's a beautiful Milan Kundera quote in his new book where he talks about the birth of a new art form called cinema. It was completely usurped by big business. Basically, now, it's big business. It's not cinema as art. What qualifies as an art picture is not what qualifies as literary fiction — and what a shame that is.

As people start watching "The Godfather" on an iPhone on the subway, the theatre becomes more and more relevant, and you realize that this ancient art form is going to survive all of this. It's funny, with rock music, music is cheaper and cheaper…but a live Bruce Springsteen concert is still priceless. A great work of theatre is priceless. It can't be repeated.

There's a great Meryl Streep quote I heard recently. When she was younger and really into theatre, they were saying, "Movies are immortal." Now that she's older, she realizes, "God, all the movies are dated." The only thing that's immortal is her production of The Cherry Orchard 33 years ago. The people who saw it love it and remember it. That hasn't dated, whereas even "Silkwood" is dated. Theatre lives. When I meet somebody who says to me, "I saw you in Jack's Henry IV," the first thing that comes to my mind is "What night?" They say, "Oh, Christmas," and I say, "Was my voice hurting?" "Yeah, your voice was really ragged." "I know. I was having such trouble." It hasn't aged a day. That's the beauty of theatre. You can't buy it on your iPod. You can't download it on iTunes. That makes it more special now.

 - Ethan Hawke

Brief Encounter With Ethan Hawke. Harry Haun. January 2011

the first thing you should learn

“A lot of bad stuff is gonna happen to you. People are not gonna love you back, and if you’re serious about becoming an artist, that’s the first thing you should learn. And, listen, you’re gonna die, okay? Relatively soon, okay? So, that being said, you have nothing to worry about.”

The Hottest State

before sunset

if your north star is your own personal development, you can't go wrong

ethan hawke in the winter's tale - 2009

Every now and then I suffer a little envy. I feel that if I had been more ambitious in a different way... But then I'm really fortunate that my interests take me in a bunch of different places and I really enjoy it. It's easy to let other people convince you that life is like a race. But there really is no finishing line. Nobody does win. With that in mind, I always feel that, if your north star is your own personal development, you can't go wrong.

Ethan Hawke

i used to be painfully jealous of him

River Phoenix, Ethan Hawke and Jason Presson in Explorers - 1985

I was friends with River Phoenix, you know, and I used to be painfully jealous of him. Until a friend pointed out that him doing well doesn’t mean that you’re doing badly. And if he does badly, it doesn’t mean you’re doing better. It’s like that great Gore Vidal line, ‘Whenever a friend of mine succeeds, a small part of me dies.’

Ethan Hawke - 2008 - Interview - Guardian.co.uk

you can't will anybody to do anything

when all else fails, we can whip the horses eyes, and make them sleep

My relationship to reality has been so utterly skewed for so long that I don’t even notice it any more. It’s just my reality.

ethan hawke

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.

salvador dalí

never too late

It’s never too late to heal yourself. And if you heal yourself, then the bad things that happen aren’t so bad.

herald scotland - interview with james mottram - june 2010

a place that is cold sober when my body is stumbling drunk

There is this place deep inside where I feel I am connected to everything, not just trees and grass and dogs but buildings and staircases, rocks and sidewalks. It's a deathly quiet place that I guess I've never shared with anyone and probably couldn't, a place that is cold sober when my body is stumbling drunk, another consciousness that sits still like an antenna in tune with some other part of the galaxy.

Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke

love at first sight isn't really love, because you can't love someone until you know them

What did I learn from my first love experience? I learned that I was an idiot.

Those kind of first experiences, where men and- you know, people kinda fall in love is that's where you find out a lot about yourself. I think we kinda use each other in a way, a healthy way.

whether the relationships work out or not. You find out so much about your inner life, that non-romantic friendships don't ever ask of you.

...really falling in love gets down to the essence of you touches some kind of ... something deep within you that only previously your parents had touched.

hottest state interview for artisan news service

longing for the past is like a tangible physical torture

Sometimes it hurts bad. The longing for the past is like a tangible physical torture. Oh, God, I wanted to remember every moment of my life. I didn’t want to forget anything. If I could remember, then the passing seconds might have some meaning or be amassing into some definition or purpose. […] The burden of all those memories creates in me a yearning for the quiet I imagine would come with a giant heroin overdose or if I shoved my skull under the wheel of a moving bus.

Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke

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

art was a religious-like calling

There was a very high value placed on the arts in my family. None of them were artists, but they loved books and movies and music. I grew up with people who believed that at its best art was a religious-like calling. I mean, my stepfather thought Bob Dylan was the greatest religious figure of the 20th century – and in a way he’s right, you know. They were also people who didn’t define success in financial terms and I think that’s had a very big influence on me.

telegraph - interview with john preston - june 2010

i want you to be exactly like me

“I used to spend all this time walking around trying to convice everybody that I’m a good person, but I’m not good. I’m childish. I want everything my way. I want you to be the way I want you to be. Frankly, I want you to be exactly like me. I think the whole world should be exactly like me! I am manipulative as hell. I feel sorry for myself, I’m two-faced, I talk shit about people I actually like. I am not a good person and I don’t want to be, screw that, but I’m not bad either.”

Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke

writing allows you to believe your thoughts exist

"We’re all fascinated by what it would be like to be someone else. It’s a seductive idea. We think that other people have an easier time of it."

“Being famous before you know who you are as a human being makes you feel like a phony.“

"I write to clear up in my own head what I’m thinking about. Writing allows you to believe your thoughts exist."

"I’ve got a lot of baggage now. I’m a famous actor, I’ve got two kids, and I’m becoming harder and harder to date"

"Hopefully, all this stuff I’ve been going through personally will translate into making me a better man. That’s all you can hope to get from any kind of suffering. The dream is that somehow you’ll come out of it stronger."

telegraph - 'people don't know me' interview with tim geary -  april 2004

everybody's so unique

"normalcy doesn't exist. I don't think that my family that I grew up in was normal. My father's an actuary and my mother was teaching school. That sounds kind of normal, but everybody's so unique. And whenever you get to know anybody really well, you realize they're just as complex as anyone else. "

IGN interview with steve head

the sea refuses no river

this is like my little window to the world and every minutes a different show.

now i may not understand it i may not even necessarily  agree with it

but i tell you what i accept it and just sort of glide along

you ought to keep things on an even key, this is what i'm saying

you wanna go with the flow

the sea refuses no river

the idea is to remain in a state of constant departure

while always arriving 

saves on introductions and goodbyes

the ride does not require an explanation, just occupants

thats where you guys come in

its like you come on to this planet with a crayon box

now you may get the 8 pack, you may get the 16 pack

but its all in what you do with the crayons, the colors that you're given

and don't worry about drawing within the lines or coloring outside the lines

i say color outside the lines, you know what i mean? color right off the page

don't box me in! we're in motion to the ocean

we are not land locked, i'll tell ya that

-waking life

it's so hard for me staying here all alone, when you could be taking me for a riiiiide