52+ Dennis Hopper Quotes (Charismatic, Quirky And Iconic)

Dennis Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker, and artist. He was a major figure in the New Hollywood movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his role in the classic 1969 film Easy Rider, which he also co-wrote and directed.

Top 10 Dennis Hopper Quotes

1. The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad.
2. It takes more than going down to the video store and renting "Easy Rider" to be a rebel.
3. People keep asking me, 'What evil lurks in you to play such bad characters?' There is no evil in me, I just wear tight underwear.
4. Just because it happened to you, doesn't mean it's interesting.
5. Art is a bad word in Hollywood. You use art too many times and they show you the elevator and then your name is taken off the parking lot.
6. My whole written history is one big lie! I mean, I can't even believe my history.
7. Independent films in this country are in the same position. Miramax and Fine Line are not independent - they're with Disney! Come on. Or they're with Warner Brothers. They're all with somebody.
8. I think of [my photographs] as found paintings because I don't crop them, I don't manipulate them or anything. So they're like found objects to me.
9. You know, the history of California art doesn't start until about 1961, and that's when these photographs start. I mean, we have no history out here.
10. I should have been dead ten times over. I've thought about that a lot. I believe in miracles. It's an absolute miracle that I'm still around.

Dennis Hopper Short Quotes

• To make a documentary is one thing, to make a feature film is quite another.
• Dialectic logic is there's only love and hate, you either love somebody or you hate them.
• I've always been doing some sort of art. I started off, when I was very young, painting.
• When we're out of the eighties, the nineties are gonna make the sixties look like the fifties!
• Like all artists, I want to cheat death a little and contribute something to the next generation.
• As an actor, you have no control really.
• Photography and painting, all of that fed into my directing eventually.
• The best and only authentic book written on the sixties underground.
• You're like a turd that won't flush.

Dennis Hopper Famous Quotes And Sayings

You want to hear about insanity? I was found running naked through the jungles in Mexico. At the Mexico City airport, I decided I was in the middle of a movie and walked out on the wing on takeoff. My body... my liver... okay, my brain... went. — Dennis Hopper

I am just a middle-class farm boy from Dodge City and my grandparents were wheat farmers. I thought painting, acting, directing and photography were all part of being an artist. I have made my money that way. And I have had some fun. It's not been a bad life. — Dennis Hopper

Jimmy [Dean] was the most talented and original actor I ever saw work. He was also a guerrilla artist who attacked all restrictions on his sensibility. Once he pulled a switchblade and threatened to murder his director. I imitated his style in art and in life. It got me in a lot of trouble. — Dennis Hopper

I think not being a professional photographer was actually a blessing, because it allowed me to shoot things professional photographers wouldn't shoot, or wouldn't try or attempt to shoot without lights. So I did all my stuff natural and without lights. — Dennis Hopper

[After Easy Rider] I couldn't get another movie, so I lived in Mexico City for a couple of years. I lived in Paris for a couple of years. I didn't take any photographs, and then I went to Japan and saw a Nikon used. I bought it, and I just started, like an alcoholic. I shot 300 rolls of film. That was the beginning of me starting again. — Dennis Hopper

I used to have to wear a gas mask to school when I was a kid because of the dust. I would tell people that the first light I saw was in a movie theater, because the sun was just a little glow. — Dennis Hopper

Well, it's not just money. I consider myself establishment right now. I'm borderline establishment, I'm hanging on by my toenails - but I'm establishment. — Dennis Hopper

When I was about 14. I saw my first mountain. I saw the ocean for the first time. I remember thinking that that ocean looked very similar to our wheat fields. I didn't know what I thought I would see when I looked out at the ocean, but I thought I'd see something different. — Dennis Hopper

I've been a Republican since Reagan. I voted for Bush and his father. I don't tell a lot of people, because I live in a city where somebody who voted for Bush is really an outcast. — Dennis Hopper

I'm still around artists. I don't have anymore wall space. And I don't have the money to collect anymore, the prices are outrageous. — Dennis Hopper

I was a Shakespearean actor, I had preconceived ideas, line readings - everything was a gesture, everything was conscious. — Dennis Hopper

I made a picture called Super Mario Bros., and my six-year-old son at the time - he's now 18 - he said, 'Dad I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in Super Mario Bros?' And I said, 'Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,' and he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.' — Dennis Hopper

I was always involved in art and when I went under contract at Warner Bros. at 18, it afforded me the possibility of never having to stop painting, never having to stop taking photographs and so on, and to actually live a cultural life. — Dennis Hopper

Work is fun to me. All those years of being an actor and a director and not being able to get a job - two weeks is too long to not know what my next job will be. — Dennis Hopper

The inside of the Pentagon is an incredible place and a dramatic set. We do [travel] outside, but the inside workings of the civilian oversight of the military inside the Pentagon is really about as exciting as anything you ever want to deal with. It is really amazing. — Dennis Hopper

I was very shy, and it was a lot easier for me to communicate if I had a camera between me and other people. — Dennis Hopper

I couldn't get a job acting all the time and there were down periods where I could take photographs or paint. I got into a lot of trouble when I was young, from making two films with James Dean, watching him work and then him dying and thinking I could turn down work. There was a big difference, he was a star and I wasn't. So I got in a lot of trouble and was essentially banned from Hollywood. — Dennis Hopper

The alcohol was awful. I was a terrible alcoholic. I mean, people used to ask how much drugs I did. I said, 'I only do drugs so I can drink more'. I was doing the coke so I could drink more. I mean, I don't know any other reason. I'd start drinking in the morning. I'd drink all day long. — Dennis Hopper

I never really made any money and it certainly cost me more to take photographs than I got for them. — Dennis Hopper

I was reading a lot of Thomas Jefferson at the time, and Jefferson said that every 20 years, if one party has stayed in power, it's your obligation as an American to vote the other party in. — Dennis Hopper

'Easy Rider' was never a motorcycle movie to me. A lot of it was about politically what was going on in the country. — Dennis Hopper

I went back to photography in the 1990s. But from the 60s to the 90s I didn't really take any photographs at all, unfortunately. During that period I lived in France, I lived in England, I lived all over the place in different cities. I didn't take any photographs and because I felt I had really accomplished everything that I wanted to in photography during the period between 61 and 67. — Dennis Hopper

I was an abstract expressionist before I had seen any abstract expressionist paintings. I started when I was a kid and continued just doing abstract stuff all through high school. — Dennis Hopper

In a world where the dead have returned to life, the word" trouble' loses much of its meaning. — Dennis Hopper

I didn't see an abstract painting until I was 18, when I went to Vincent Price's house and saw Richard Niebencorn, Wolff, Jackson Pollack. He had an amazing collection. I didn't know people painted abstractly, I thought I was just doing something wholeheartedly. — Dennis Hopper

The reality of things going on around me is more interesting than the fantasies of the world I work in. — Dennis Hopper

I was someone who was out of control and not to be worked with. It was partly because method acting was a new thing in Hollywood then and Marlon Brando had gotten through and Montgomery Clift had gotten through and James Dean but beyond that there wasn't really anybody. — Dennis Hopper

You know, this is such a rich time that we've just been involved in, and there's really a job now for historians. Film is still very young. This is the first hundred years of filmmaking. So I think it's important that we have some sense of history and continuity. Especially in film. — Dennis Hopper

Banks wont even loan each other money, everybody's going broke, and here we are inside here, these people are going to be out on the street selling apples and pencils and they're still going to be buying paintings for this money, so I don't know what's going on in this world. — Dennis Hopper

There are moments that I`ve had some real brilliance, you know. But I think they are moments. And sometimes, in a career, moments are enough. — Dennis Hopper

... I'm sort of a nervous person with the camera, so I will just shoot arbitrarily until I can focus and compose something, and then I make a shot. So generally, in [the] proof sheets, there are only three or four really concentrated efforts to take a photograph. It's not like a professional kind of person who sets it up so every photograph looks really cool. — Dennis Hopper

In Method acting, you can't have preconceived ideas. You have to live in the moment. You have to keep yourself open. — Dennis Hopper

I wanted to be an actor. I decided when I was very young, when I first saw movies, that I wanted to be an actor. — Dennis Hopper

Life Lessons by Dennis Hopper

1. Dennis Hopper taught us to never give up on our dreams, no matter how difficult the journey may be. He worked hard to become a successful actor and director, and his determination paid off in the end.
2. He also showed us the importance of staying true to ourselves and never compromising our values. He was an artist who followed his own path and refused to conform to the industry's standards.
3. Finally, Dennis Hopper taught us to take risks and embrace change. He was always willing to try new things and explore different genres, which led to some of his most iconic performances.