Your hair is like a field of silver daisies. I'd like to run barefoot through your hair!

It's just a fad, part of the teen, teenage angst brigade

I wanted a song that people could perceive as a love song, while the lyrics are actually very angry. That song is about not being able to establish a relationship with anyone, not being able to experience love outside of family. I've been with girls but only for short periods of time because I'm a but scared of commitment, so after a month it's like.....
I'm scared that if I really like someone it won't happen, so I cut it short. A lot of the time it just feels like it's not real love. We've got girls screaming and stuff, girls saying they love us, but I think they're in love with the idea of being in love with someone onstage or in love with people they see in magazines or on television. That's not real - it's totally false.

interview with paul elliot - march 1999

scalp cutta

"With the help of former roommate and bass player Tony Marryatt, Jeff joined the AKB Band, a reggae combo led by saxophonist Al Kirk. At rehearsals, Jeff amazed the band by breaking into a Jamaican dancehall rap. Before long, he had acquired a nickname-"Scalp Cutta," for his slashing reggae riffs- and was making $50 weekly playing with the band (and their frequent singer, dreadlocked keyboardist Pablove Black) at a ganja-smoke-filled Jamaican club in town."

Dream Brother by David Browne (page 101)

if coke is a mystery, michael jackson history, if beauty is truth, and surgery the fountain of youth, what am i to do?

have i got the gift to get me through the gates of that mansion

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 will go walking no place at all and find some place to dance

"Beside reading and watching movies, finding out of the way places where misfits go. What I really like is night prowling. Sometimes around two in the morning, I will go walking no place at all and find some place to dance. I really like to just sit and watch people. I like to sit some place like the Jojo restaurant, on St. Marks Place, and watch people all night. That's a good question. I must lead a really boring life."

"Eating, sleeping, and time to yourself are like gold. Oh, and health."

interview with kylie buddin for You Could Do Worse Zine, #3.

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