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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 -
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
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It's so hard for every young person, trying to figure out the adult you want to be.
Ethan Hawke -
I remember staying up all night waiting to see the first screening of Cape Fear because you knew that every time Robert DeNiro had a performance it was going to be revelatory. Then DeNiro hit this place, he seemed like he was done with the emotional cost of impaling himself like that, and he dedicated himself to comedy.
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 got to work with Robert DeNiro once and it was a strange experience. Gwyneth Paltrow and I were doing Great Expectations movie together and we were complaining about what a mediocre film experience it was. DeNiro showed up on set and all of a sudden the director got better, the director of photography got better - everybody got more interested and excited. DeNiro isn't waiting for other people to create the environment that he wants, he brings it along with him.
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 -
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
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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 -
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 -
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 -
Directing is like putting together a collage.
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 -
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
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The script of Regression wasn't the draw for me. It was largely Alejandro Amenabar and his way of talking. To hear him talking about the script was way more interesting than the script. He wrote it, and so, English is his second language. It's an interesting thing. I've had that before. I was directed by Alfonso CuarĂ³n before, too. It's always interesting when you're being directed by somebody like that. So much of directing is about communication, and finding the right words, and what it means, and how to convey certain emotions and ideas.
Ethan Hawke -
I have totally hitched my wagon to the horse of storytelling, and the idea that none of us know why we're born, or why we're gonna die, or what we're planted here, or what's on the other side of the galaxy, or when time began, or when time end. The whole nature of reality is pretty up for grabs, really.
Ethan Hawke -
Nightmares are a strange thing. Your worst fear is sometimes something you enjoy thinking about, for some strange reason. I don't know why that is, but it's some kind of fantasy that people play out. "What would I do to protect my children? I'd do anything." And then, you watch it play out. I'm petrified of such a thing.
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 -
Alejandro AmenĂ¡bar 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 -
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
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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.
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 -
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 -
The more kind of head trippy sci-fi. I always like that. I was a big 'Twilight Zone' freak.
Ethan Hawke