110+ Ethan Hawke Quotes On Culture, Nature And Creativity

Ethan Hawke is an American actor, writer, and director. He is known for his roles in films such as Dead Poets Society, Training Day, and Boyhood. He has also directed several films, including Before Sunset, Before Midnight, and Blaze. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Ethan Hawke on love, culture, life.

Top 10 Ethan Hawke Quotes

1. 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.
2. Life's hard. It's supposed to be. If we didn't suffer, we'd never learn anything.
3. Don't you find it odd," she continued, "that when you're a kid, everyone, all the world, encourages you to follow your dreams. But when you're older, somehow they act offended if you even try.
4. In New York, you've got Donald Trump, Woody Allen, a crack addict and a regular Joe, and they're all on the same subway car.
5. Read. It makes you more intelligent. It’s that simple. We all see the universe through the tiny keyhole of our own eyes, and every book is another keyhole from which you can gaze.
6. The older I get, the more I realize how rare it is to meet a kindred spirit.
7. I'm horrified to admit that I just love Salinger. I was devastated to find out that other people feel the same way.
8. I met a lot of famous people when I was about 24. And none of them seemed very appealing. And so I didn't know why I would struggle to be that kind of person.
9. Happiness is in the doing not in getting what you want.
10. I kill flies, I eat meat, you know, whatever.

Ethan Hawke Short Quotes

• Give your heart to everybody you meet. The rest is pretense.
• And the joy of my job - and it's really true - is that it's constantly evolving and changing.
• I thought I was so much smarter than everybody. And I'm not.
• If you don't risk doing something foolish, you'll never do anything special.
• I'm always trying to look for how I can find human stories that aren't just dramas.
• You can't keep wanting to be 20 years old. Everybody knows that, but what's in the next room?
• It's so hard for every young person, trying to figure out the adult you want to be.
• The truth is that the more you get paid, the less freedom you have. They never pay you for nothing.
• Time is so much a part of what makes you close to people.
• Set designers, costume designers, actors, writers, music, that's what is beautiful.

Ethan Hawke Quotes About Love

When you do 'Before Sunset,' you know while it's a limited audience, there was a very small group of people that love 'Before Sunrise.' You feel a certain pressure to make sure that you uphold a level of quality that has been a bar. You set a bar and you have to at least match it. — 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

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

Oh, I like going down the rabbit hole. You know, that's kind of my job. When you play Macbeth, you gotta dive down that one. The trick is figuring out how to do it with love and a sense of humor so you can pop back out again. But, kind of the actor's job is to go down the rabbit hole. — 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

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

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

The kindest compliments I have ever heard are when cops tell me Training Day and Assault on Precinct 13 inspired them to become cops. The funniest compliments I have ever heard are when people tell me that 'I love your band Sugar Ray. — 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

Ethan Hawke Quotes About Life

Depression is a real demon in the woods for a lot of creative people, you know? It's part of what the documentary is trying to be about for me, finding balance, where the beauty that is attainable in the creative arts can be matched with the scratchy roughness of regular life. — Ethan Hawke

I've had different opportunities in my life, but I've tried to maintain the spirit of an amateur. Our culture roots everything in the barometer of success and how much money you make. But if you really just aspire to a life in the arts, it's really not a barometer at all. — Ethan Hawke

The experience on that movie (Dead Poets Society) was, for lack of a better term, life-altering. Peter Weir has a unique talent for making movies that are intelligent but also mainstream. I've never been terribly successful at doing that. — Ethan Hawke

I was being taken around by a press agent at the Venice Film Festival at age 18. Was it fun? Sure. But it was a dangerous path to be walking on as far as having a substantive life. Because the casualty rate at the Venice Film Festival for 18-year-olds? High. — 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

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

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

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

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

I like [that] there's a certain inherent drama to those jobs that is exciting to tell stories about and it's still real life. I'm a little less interested in the current fad of being obsessed with superheroes and things that are so out of the box. — Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke Quotes About Creativity

Sometimes people, their creative drive comes from an energy to try to heal themselves. — Ethan Hawke

The theater, for me, has always been a place where I'm free to be more creative, a place to sharpen my tools. — Ethan Hawke

The most creative and most periods of my life that were, had the most growth, were the ones where I was perceived to be failing. Perceived success is a, is really hard 'cause it doesn't really, it's not asking you to grow, see failure is asking you to grow. — Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke Quotes About Kind

I auditioned for Robert Redford once and I was so starstruck I couldn't even speak. I had a mic wire at a screen test clipped to me and then I got kind of nervous and I paced in a circle and then took a step and tripped and fell on my face. You just have to forgive yourself and keep going on. — Ethan Hawke

The more kind of head trippy sci-fi. I always like that. I was a big 'Twilight Zone' freak. — Ethan Hawke

In all of our society, but especially in Hollywood, there is an obsession with perfection that can lead to self-loathing and neurosis and all that kind of stuff. — Ethan Hawke

It's difficult to do a genre film well, and it doesn't matter if you're talking vampire movies or 'Dawn of the Dead' or 'The Thing' or 'Escape From New York.' Those kind of movies, they understand what the old-school B-movie is supposed to be, they get the throwback of it. — 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

One of the hardest things about my job is that there kind of is no one rulebook that applies to all situations. — Ethan Hawke

It's a really unique job that is a little schizophrenic and you have to kind of do it with a sense of humor.The trick is figuring out what each job is asking of you and what it's not asking of you. — 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

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

One of the things I can do is to try to put myself in different kinds of movies and that kind of subtly changes my work. By the time my obituary is written, I want there to be a great western and a great comedy. — Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke Quotes About People

You don't need other people to affirm that you're a valuable person. — Ethan Hawke

A good movie humanizes people. — 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

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

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

Most of us float with the river and there are a few people who move the river. Robert DeNiro is definitely one of them. — 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

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

I'd really rather that nobody had a gun, and then nobody would have to worry about it. That would be more my theory. In America, there's this knee-jerk response that more walls and more guns make people safer, and I'm entirely suspect of that way of thinking. — Ethan Hawke

People are conditioned to just you know, like, you know we're like little birdies going to the bird feeder you know, or the little cows going to the salt lick. We just like what we've seen before. — Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke Quotes About Movie

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 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

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 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

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

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 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

I don't know what has happened to movies, but lately every movie is at least 20 minutes too long. It used to be that if you were three hours long it was because it was epic - a movie about Gandhi; something with very important subject matters. — 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

Ethan Hawke Quotes About Movies

One of the things that separates a good genre movie from a bad genre movie, I always think, ironically, is when you care about the people. The dime a dozen ones are where you don't have any awareness of the character. — Ethan Hawke

If you're not a real chameleon of an actor and if you're not one of those guys who can really shape-change themselves all the time, one of the ways to keep pushing yourself and keep changing is to be in different kinds of movies. — 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

It's interesting to work with Emma [Watson] so quickly after Harry Potter. When we shot this movie, it wasn't that long after Harry Potter was finished, and it's knowing that's a big transition in her life. She's a very talented young woman. — Ethan Hawke

I've very rarely worked with somebody that had such a clear idea of what Alejandro Amenábar wanted to do and what he wanted to achieve. The guy is incredibly prepared. He was clearly making a movie for himself and his own dream. I just tried to be a part of that dream. It's a rare opportunity. — 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

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

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

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

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

Ethan Hawke Famous Quotes And Sayings

I take pleasure in the little things. Double cheeseburgers, those are good, the sky ten minutes before it rains,the moment your laugh turns into a cackle. And I sit here, and smoke my Camel straights, and I ride my own melt. — Ethan Hawke

The Woodstock Film festival is among the finest of a dying breed: a festival that isn’t trying to sell you anything, but simply and beautifully celebrating the art & craft of filmmaking. — 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

It was fantastic to be on the set again with Denzel (Washington) and Antoine (Fuqua) and then to have the situation be so different. We weren't making a sequel to Training Day. We were in the middle of the desert riding around on some horses. — Ethan Hawke

You need to be a good screen partner. It's very meaningful to me to be a part of great acting performances. — Ethan Hawke

If you say to yourself, okay, I will not self-destruct. I don't have to be the most talented person. I don't have to be everybody's best friend, I don't have to be liked, I don't have to be successful, well, one thing I will not do is self-destruct. If you take that out, your chances for success just went up like 800 percent. — 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

I've had a lot of experience in independent film, and about how to choose. You've got to be very discerning about where you put your five bucks, and where you cut and what you don't cut. — Ethan Hawke

It's interesting to get older and realize that part of your job growing up in this profession is to help the next generation. More and more, with Boyhood and with Ellar Coltrane and with Emma [Watson], I start to see that role. There's no better way. Nobody wants advice, so you can't really give it. You just have to try to wish them well on their journey. — Ethan Hawke

My job - and it's really true - is that it's constantly evolving and changing. When I was doing the Chet Baker movie I was obsessed with playing the trumpet, and to my absolute shock I haven't picked the trumpet up since we wrapped. It was so much work. I thought I was going to keep playing the rest of my life, 'cause it was fun, it's just a lot of work. And it's a really unique job that exposes you to a lot. — Ethan Hawke

I think that as soon as you think of yourself as a famous person or anything like that, you're objectifying yourself in some weird way. — 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

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

Years ago I was going to play Chet Baker in another movie and I really felt drawn to that character and the script is good and I met with Robert and we seemed simpatico and we developed. But I had a real passion for that role and that brought me deep into that film 'cause I got the sense that Robert Budreau was going to really let me be creative inside this part. — 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

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

I'd be lying if I said I had confidence in every choice I've made, that I have faith in every film I do on every shot. — Ethan Hawke

My favorite stories are human, so I'm always looking for... — Ethan Hawke

There's only so often you're going to have an opportunity to contribute at a high level and that you should be grateful whenever one presents itself and not take it lightly. — Ethan Hawke

I love really exploring... you know, a cop drama for example is a great way to explore class in this country and explore, you know, really, identity in the country and who we are in a way that is extremely exciting, but it's also real, you know, it's also real people and real drama. The same with the military. I mean, a good science fiction story is also great. — Ethan Hawke

I did this movie right after it about the life of Chet Baker. It's called Born to Be Blue. In that situation, there's a real clear character you're drawing on. It's a real person. It's really exciting and interesting to do the research to figure out how to make that a nuanced, three-dimensional human being. — Ethan Hawke

I enjoyed meeting Emma [Watson]. I have a soft spot in my heart for child actors growing up. I know how hard that is. Having gone through that experience myself, I have a lot of sensitivity to it. For lack of a better word, I just feel like I love these kids, and I want them all to grow up and love themselves, and not get caught up in the wrong things, and to learn all the different things this profession has to give, and to understand it. — Ethan Hawke

Success isn't measured by what you achieve, it's measured by the obstacles you overcome. — Ethan Hawke

My parents thought all actors were secretly drug addicts, except for Clint Eastwood, whom they admired. But they thought it was very unlikely that I would ever be Clint Eastwood. — 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

Friends can hurt you, but the possibility of pain with lovers is so much greater because your expectations are so high. You don't ask as much of your friends. — Ethan Hawke

With this sunrise somehow I felt I was exactly where I was supposed to be... Have faith, the light seemed to announce. — Ethan Hawke

What I learned about acting, from my experiences directing, is why so many producers and directors don't like actors. You go through all of this work securing a location, figuring out how to get electricity there, how to get trucks parked where they need to be, and where catering is going to come from. And if the actors don't come up with some magic, it actually didn't matter. That creates a lot of animosity towards the actors. — Ethan Hawke

Sometimes people save the best part of themselves for their art. — Ethan Hawke

When you start becoming really successful, the demons start to tempt you - the demons of vanity and self importance, drug abuse, the feelings of fraudulence. But, it's also a thrill. That's what I found weird. — 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

It's certainly an interesting moment to try to talk about, 'cause you could make a great show about the police force right now, with all that's happening in the news and Ferguson and all of it. — Ethan Hawke

When I see Lionel Messi play soccer, he lets the game come to him. He lets the game unveil itself to him, then like a lion he eats the whole thing. — Ethan Hawke

Have this Chet Baker movie coming out and in that situation, I went down the rabbit hole studying Chet Baker and being obsessed with the period and the music and the relationships and the dynamic, and everything, drug addiction. There was so much I wanted to get at to kind of get at the truth. With Regression, I was certainly in Alejandro's [Amenabar] hands. — Ethan Hawke

The drones are really interesting - how have the troops withdrawn from Afghanistan? Because we've upped the drone strikes and most of the country doesn't even really know what that means or who we're killing or... it's such a new weapon that we don't know what the long term impacts of that kind of military action is going to be. — Ethan Hawke

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

In truth, the world is a complicated place. — Ethan Hawke

I meet a lot of young people that want to go into acting because they think of what it will do for them. If that's the case, it can be a very, very painful profession. But if the kids want to do acting because they love it, and they want to give to it, then they can have a great life. It's really about as simple as how you look at it. — Ethan Hawke

I've had several moments in my career where it seemed like I might not age out of the bracket the world wants to put you in. It's hard to keep growing up inside the performing arts. It's very difficult, and presents a lot of unique challenges. — Ethan Hawke

If you covet fame, if you covet all the superficial accolades, you're gonna be miserable 'cause you're never going to get enough praise. If you covet contributing something substantive to movies, music, literature, then you won't be unhappy. — Ethan Hawke

I've turned down good directors before because I knew the part didn't speak to me and I've worked with less talented directors before because the part I had such passion for. — Ethan Hawke

We're fascinated by things that scare us, and one of the things that scares us is violence. Violence exists. It's a real part of our lives. We are obsessed with what we're scared of, but it certainly doesn't define us. — Ethan Hawke

If you can channel the best part of you that is bigger than yourself, where it’s not about your ego and not about getting ahead, then you can have fun and you aren’t jealous of others. You see other people's talent as another branch of your own. You can keep it rooted in joy. Life is long and there are plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. The point of it all is to learn. — Ethan Hawke

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

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

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

If my kids are doing well, then my life is going pretty well. And if my kids aren't doing well, it doesn't matter how the other elements of my life are. It's kind of amazing to have a context like that. This is really wonderful. — 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

I always felt that a marriage works best at a farm... where you're together and everybody has clear-cut roles; they have chores, 'you take care of this' and you know. But it's hard. — Ethan Hawke

The thing that really breeds career longevity in this profession is doing good work. You can make $20 million a movie, but does that mean you'll still have a job when you're 60? It's a profession that eats people up and wants constant turnaround, so you have to dedicate yourself to learning and making the most of whatever gift you may have. — Ethan Hawke

It was when I was on the set of Dead Poets Society.There was actor,his name was Norman Lloyd. One day he took us all aside and said, "You guys don't even understand what a powerful experience you're having. You don't really understand what a gift this is." We were going, "What does he mean?" It was that really wonderful opportunities aren't to be taken for granted. I often found that it had embedded itself in my memory. — Ethan Hawke

At every turn, when humanity is asked the question, 'Do you want temporary economic gain or long-term environmental loss, which one do you prefer,' we invariably choose the money. — Ethan Hawke

I think it's my job to risk looking foolish. One of the things I've learned from the actors I've worked with is you don't get something for nothing. If you don't risk looking foolish, you'll never do anything special. — Ethan Hawke

If you don't give inspiration an opportunity, it will never arrive. — Ethan Hawke

Whenever a really passionate, talented filmmaker seems to have an interest in me, I take it very seriously because I like to work. — Ethan Hawke

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

Life Lessons by Ethan Hawke

1. Ethan Hawke has demonstrated the importance of hard work and dedication to one's craft, as he has been consistently working in the film industry for over three decades.
2. He has also shown the value of taking risks, as he has taken on a variety of roles in different genres and has often pushed himself to take on challenging roles.
3. Finally, Ethan Hawke has shown the importance of staying true to oneself, as he has been vocal about his beliefs and has always strived to create meaningful art.