The Best Ethan Hawke quotes

You are always in the right place at exactly the right time, and you always have been. — Ethan Hawke

I can’t tell you how many times in the ’90s I’d meet somebody, we’d be having a nice time, and they’d sigh and go, ‘This is exactly like Before Sunrise.’ And I’d have to get up and leave. — Ethan Hawke

The girls who like me aren’t the ones I like. Or, if I do and they want to commit, I suddenly need tons of time with my friends. — Ethan Hawke

We live in a funny time. If you don’t go corporate, you can’t compete. You’re relegated as irrelevant. People used to admire that. — Ethan Hawke

It is quite rare to find people who are really dedicated to a level of excellence. Most of us are really quite lazy most of the time. — Ethan Hawke

Time is what creates trust. — Ethan Hawke

Time is so much a part of what makes you close to people. — Ethan Hawke

Everything is so finite but that’s what makes our time and specific moments so important. — Ethan Hawke

It is the fact that time is passing that creates its preciousness. — Ethan Hawke

She] and I were giving each other the only thing we truly have to offer: our time. We were going to give each other the living minutes of our life. — Ethan Hawke

I really did Regression to work with Alejandro [Amenabar]. I found him very interesting. His movie, The Others, is one of the better scary movies of the last period of time. — Ethan Hawke

I don’t have a lot of experiences like this where every time I thought I had a good idea it was totally wrong. I had to give in completely and just try to make the movie Alejandro Amenábar was trying to make. — Ethan Hawke

A good movie humanizes people. — Ethan Hawke

But the truth is, I’ve never wanted to be a movie star–and I’ve been pretty clear about that. — Ethan Hawke

When you make a movie with Alejandro Amenábar, he very quickly… it was very clear you’re kind of operating in his dream universe. — Ethan Hawke

I did this movie, Predestination, and it’s one of my favorite movies I’ve ever made, because sci–fi really lets you talk about ideas in a way that’s not pretentious. — Ethan Hawke

It is very difficult for any couple who are married if both people are ambitious. I don’t know if it’s just too hard to be married to a woman that wants to be a movie star. — Ethan Hawke

It’s difficult to make any kind of action movie that might be unique or worth watching. — Ethan Hawke

You realize how much our identity has been wrapped up, about what we want, and how we see people, and how hard it is to sell a movie without a gun–no wonder we’re in turmoil over this subject. — Ethan Hawke

And i noticed recently if you put in a column of every movie i ever did where i carry a gun, And every movie where i don’t, And my salary… i really think it would be about 92 percent to 8 percent. — Ethan Hawke

Some people burn out, and some people like Clint Eastwood, he was a wild, international movie star in his 30s, and he’s doing the best work of his life now. Go figure. — Ethan Hawke

I never thought that I would be labeled something like Generation X because of that movie ( Reality Bites ). I had no idea going into it, and it wasn’t a label I could relate to. — Ethan Hawke

The idea that a film is created in the editing room–it’s only a certain kind of movie that’s made in the editing room and it’s not one that I really want to see. — Ethan Hawke

I did one sci–fi movie. I did ‘Gattaca.’ I liked ‘Gattaca’ because that was always the kind of science fiction I really dug, the non–action oriented sci–fi. — Ethan Hawke

One of the things that’s really lousy about making movies is that you have such little interaction with your audience. — Ethan Hawke

The thing that makes a great genre movie is one that’s not just entertainment, not just horror or sci–fi or whatever. The ones I love are the genre pictures with some subversive message underlying it all. — Ethan Hawke

I remember being a kid and sleeping over at my friend’s house and staying up late and watching ‘Nosferatu.’ Vampire movies are supposed to be secret and bad. They should be rated R. — Ethan Hawke

I’ve always been drawn to the best writing that I can find. I don’t care if it’s in movies or theater or whatever–if you want to be in front of an audience, you have to do writing you believe in. — Ethan Hawke

Few years ago I did a movie, Good Kill, about drone pilots and for four or five months I’m obsessed with the Air Force. — Ethan Hawke

If you study the history of mankind, it seems to be a history of violence. Certainly the history of art, whether you look at paintings or movies or plays or whatever, is just a litany of murder and death. — Ethan Hawke

Alejandro Amenábar has a unique way of approaching movies and thinking about something which was new to me. It was different. I have a lot of respect for him so I just took a gamble. — Ethan Hawke

Right now the only people I can really fall in love with are people who don’t really, truly want me around. Now why do I do that? — Ethan Hawke

In fact, I think my life is always going to be difficult, because I am trying to do something… ‘original’ is a big word. It’s kind of pathetic, but I have to love what I’m doing. — Ethan Hawke

I have a daughter and the thing I wish for her is not love, fame, money or anything like that. It’s just one great best friend. You know, if you have somebody that has your back, you’re gonna be all right. — Ethan Hawke

We all have this fantasy of finding our one true love who’s going to be the perfect fit. It’s just not a reality. — Ethan Hawke

To get to be somebody who gets to love what they do for a living, that’s so rare, and so there must be some kind of price you have to pay. — Ethan Hawke

I love working on scripts. I love coming up with ideas about what people would dress like or talk like. I love all that. — Ethan Hawke

The only thing I can point to of why I survived is I have a family that loves me and never wanted any money from me. — Ethan Hawke

There is no trick to writing a believable love story, a heartbreaking scene or real–sounding dialogue. All you need is to tell the truth. It’s always heartbreaking. — Ethan Hawke

Love. Love is the end goal. It is the music of our lives. There is no obstacle that enought love cannot move. — Ethan Hawke

Expect nothing, and you will enjoy everything! — Ethan Hawke

I’m horrified to admit that I just love Salinger. I was devastated to find out that other people feel the same way. — Ethan Hawke

I feel like everyone I meet is an imaginary friend. I don’t know. The older I get the more I wonder what’s real. — Ethan Hawke

If I do three movies in a year, I don’t feel like acting ever again. — Ethan Hawke

I feel the same about cocaine as I do about eating meat,’ she said. ‘It’s vile and ultimately morally reprehensible, but as long as I don’t pay for it–I find it quite enjoyable. — Ethan Hawke

Brooklyn’s Finest,’ this is the kind of movie that’s why I want to be an actor, to tell real–life stories. This is where I feel my job is, to interpret life. — Ethan Hawke

As a young man… you don’t know anything about yourself. And add on to that, you’re on the cover of magazines. People are interviewing you about what you think. You feel like a real phony. — Ethan Hawke

The constant buzz and pressure and noise and static of the Internet, and the way it makes young people feel makes it difficult to grow up and develop the way one might want to. — Ethan Hawke

And the joy of my job–and it’s really true–is that it’s constantly evolving and changing. — Ethan Hawke

Simple joys are the great ones. Pleasure is not complicated. — Ethan Hawke

It was never in my dreams to make my personal life anybody else’s business. — Ethan Hawke

You know, I auditioned for ‘Titanic.’ Sometimes I muse on what would have happened. That would have been such a different life. — Ethan Hawke

Your development as a person should coincide with your development in all aspects of your life. — Ethan Hawke

I want to want to try to never waste energy degrading someone else. Also, I want to try not to see life as a competition. — Ethan Hawke

If you can understand the inner life, then you can wear the uniform, the tattoos, or whatnot and realize that the things that are different about us become superficial. — Ethan Hawke

I think having nature be a part of people’s lives helps all of us see ourselves as part of something larger. — Ethan Hawke

I think that if you walk through this life and I end up being a bad father, then it won’t matter anything else I achieved in my life. It will all be irrelevant. — Ethan Hawke

I do not want you children to use my untimely death, or any setback that life may deliver, as an excuse not to take responsibility for yourselves. — Ethan Hawke

I don’t think Emma Watson needs any advice. She’s an incredibly smart young woman who knows what she wants out of life and she has some great parents. — Ethan Hawke

All that stuff with the tabloids is a kind of luxury tax I pay for all the good things I do in my life. — Ethan Hawke

The older I get, the more obvious it is that you’re not really in control of your life, you’re a part of a larger wave, no matter who you are. — Ethan Hawke

I’ve always been interested in directing. I started acting when I was thirteen years old, so I’ve had some desire to do something else in my life. — Ethan Hawke

There’s something about knowing life is finite that makes it so precious. — Ethan Hawke

Sometimes in the life of an actor you’re not getting offered any jobs that speak to you. The trouble with acting is that you’re only as good as your opportunities. — Ethan Hawke

It just makes sense to remember gratitude and the place that gratitude should have in your life, and that none of us are owed these wonderful experiences, and we should always make the best of them. — Ethan Hawke

Set designers, costume designers, actors, writers, music, that’s what is beautiful. — Ethan Hawke

Everyone has to pay their child support, and no matter if you’re a Hollywood actor or anyone else, it’s always a little bit more than you want to pay. — Ethan Hawke

Right now, if you’re interested in being a dramatic actor, they’re not making that many just regular dramas. Movies have to have some other thing going on. — Ethan Hawke

A lot of American actors when they do Shakespeare put on a phoney English accent and it drives me crazy. You’re always fighting against the idea that only the British know how to do Shakespeare. — Ethan Hawke

I started acting when I was 13 years old and I feel like I really admire actors who are these kind of amazing shape–changing people, that they almost can turn themselves into other people. — Ethan Hawke

Often you see a famous actor who says they produced something, when all they did was claim to have an idea at a dinner party and make three phone calls. — Ethan Hawke

Emma Watson is my kids’ favorite actor on the planet. They never took me more seriously than when I was working with her. — Ethan Hawke

There’s some kind of actors that can radically change who they are from movie to movie. I’ve never really been that kind of actor. I enjoy changing the worlds that I’m in. — Ethan Hawke

The biggest problem in my life is trying to be the kind of man that I want to be, the father that I want to be, and how to process the failure of my marriage. — Ethan Hawke

My process differs… my process for a Richard Linklater film is very different than a process for Training Day. — Ethan Hawke

And the best films feel like a fist punching you in the solar plexus and all elements of the filmmaking process–the acting, the design, the cinematography, the music, is all working to one end. — Ethan Hawke

The writing process was some of the most exciting and rewarding moments of my life. It felt a lot like being in a band. — Ethan Hawke