Harry Dean Stanton Quotes
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The soul is an illusion.
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I hated being typecast in those roles. It was personally limiting, only playing stereotyped heavies. But I got those roles because I was angry, because that's what I projected. I was angry at my mother and father because they didn't get along, angry at the church. On top of that, I had an extreme lack of self-confidence.
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I'm very fortunate. I don't think anyone should have a job that they don't really enjoy.
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I worked with the best directors - Martin Scorsese, John Huston, David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock was great.
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For a musician to be good, he has to have humanity and care about the other guy. And as for blues - in a sense, black people have kept this country alive and given us our entire musical heritage.
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I can't stress too much how much Ry Cooder was an influence on me. Having one of the most respected musicians around like my singing really gave me the confidence to do it.
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I realized early on that if I became an actor, I could play a writer and a sculptor and a painter and be all the things you just don't have time to be in your lifetime. I could get to learn about all of them.
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I'm just dealing with what's happening, with what is. Joy, happiness, good, bad, all those terms are meaningless to me.
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Paris, Texas is the first film that I've totally cared about, the first movie I totally wanted to do - and that after 27 years that I considered my prison term.
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I think any performing artist can do films, or, as a matter of fact, anybody out there in the street can be a film actor with no experience whatsoever if you've got a good director.
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You want people walking away from the conversation with some kernel of wisdom or some kind of impact.
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When man began to think he was a separate person with a separate soul, it created a violent situation.
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I can understand why it takes some people a long time to really be a singer. You have to find out, 'Why am I singing? What am I doing this for?' I do it because I enjoy it, and philosophically, music is a catalyst. It's a refining agent.
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I had to decide if I wanted to be a singer or an actor. I was always singing. I thought if I could be an actor, I could do all of it.
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I had opportunities to be a lot more successful, but for some reason or other - the way I was particularly genetically wired - I turned down a lot of opportunities.
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California is full of Mexican culture and Mexican music.
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I was trained on the stage, and I can do stage as well as I can do movies, but I prefer films.
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I could have made it as a singer, but I went with acting - surrendered to it, in a way.
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There is no answer. That's what Buddhism says. The Void, oblivion, no answer. To be in that state is an enlightened state.
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What did we play in the Harry Dean Stanton Band? It was old blues and country - all covers. I never wrote anything.
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I'm tired of playing people who are complete washouts and bums. I don't mind waiting for the good ones to come along. It's like age. It's never bothered me. I've even forgot my birthday. Many times I've wondered if I should tell my real age, but now I think it's an honor, to be doing what I'm doing now at my age.
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It's just so frustrating when you're in a supporting role because you only get to express a part of yourself.
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I took speech training. I took a few voice lessons in college.
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The void, the concept of nothingness, is terrifying to most people on the planet. And I get anxiety attacks myself. I know the fear of that void. You have to learn to die before you die. You give up, surrender to the void, to nothingness.