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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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I know I've got the ability to bring a sense of menace to the screen. I have that specific competence, and it's generally kept me working.
Harry Dean Stanton
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I've got a pretty iconoclastic attitude about all institutions myself. And I just think the church was corrupted right after Christ was killed.
Harry Dean Stanton -
The soul is an illusion.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I am an actor and this is holding the mirror up to nature, as it were.
Harry Dean Stanton -
What did we play in the Harry Dean Stanton Band? It was old blues and country - all covers. I never wrote anything.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I'd love to meet Gandhi. And Christ. I'm sure he'd be interesting. And a lot different than a lot of people would think.
Harry Dean Stanton -
My sister tells me I began singing before I could even talk. My first performance was of a song called My Blue Heaven, which I began singing when I was a year and a half.
Harry Dean Stanton
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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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I took speech training. I took a few voice lessons in college.
Harry Dean Stanton -
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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I know little stories that happen to people around me, and I can repeat that in a way that has some color.
Harry Dean Stanton
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You want people walking away from the conversation with some kernel of wisdom or some kind of impact.
Harry Dean Stanton -
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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
California is full of Mexican culture and Mexican music.
Harry Dean Stanton -
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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I was trained on the stage, and I can do stage as well as I can do movies, but I prefer films.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I'm just dealing with what's happening, with what is. Joy, happiness, good, bad, all those terms are meaningless to me.
Harry Dean Stanton
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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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
Fame in itself is, you know... It involves a whole discussion on just that word, fame. It's a power; it's another degree of power, to be famous. I think it's obvious: you have more influence the more well-known you are. And, hopefully, it's righteously used.
Harry Dean Stanton -
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.
Harry Dean Stanton -
I'm very fortunate. I don't think anyone should have a job that they don't really enjoy.
Harry Dean Stanton