Gene Hackman Quotes

• The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.

  Gene Hackman

  Courage, Hero, Differences

  65 Copy quote

• Don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining.

  Gene Hackman

  Rain, Ears

  9 Copy quote

• If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being.

  Gene Hackman

  Stars, Looks, Lost

  9 Copy quote

• Seventy-five per cent of being successful as an actor is pure luck. The rest is just endurance.

  Gene Hackman

  Successful, Luck, Endurance

  11 Copy quote

• Like a duck on the pond. On the surface everything looks calm, but beneath the water those little feet are churning a mile a minute.

  Gene Hackman

  Ducks, Feet, Water

  14 Copy quote

• I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press.

  Gene Hackman

  Stars, Play, Roles

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  18 Copy quote

• I do not like assassins, or men of low character.

  Gene Hackman

  Character, Men, Assassins

  13 Copy quote

• Honesty isn't enough for me. That becomes very boring. If you can convince people what you're doing is real and it's also bigger than life - that's exciting.

  Gene Hackman

  Honesty, Real, People

  12 Copy quote

• That's the great thing about plankton. It pretty much keeps to itself.

  Gene Hackman

  Replacements, Great Things, Plankton

  6 Copy quote

• It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on-screen. I think of myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.

  Gene Hackman

  Tired, Eye, Men

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  11 Copy quote

• The worst job I ever had was working nights in the Chrysler Building. I was part of a team of about five guys, and we polished the leather furniture.

  Gene Hackman

  Jobs, Team, Night

  9 Copy quote

• Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.

  Gene Hackman

  Numbers, Actors, Dysfunctional Family

  "Gene Hackman, Hollywood's Every Angry Man" by David Edelstein, www.nytimes.com. December 16, 2001.

  12 Copy quote

• Things parents say to children are oftentimes not heard, but in some cases you pick up on things that your parent would like to see you have done.

  Gene Hackman

  Children, Parent, Done

  "Eighty-one Years. Seventy-nine Movies. Two Oscars. Not One Bad Performance". Interview with Michael Hainey, www.gq.com. June 1, 2011.

  13 Copy quote

• I have trouble with direction, because I have trouble with authority. I was not a good Marine.

  Gene Hackman

  Marine, Trouble, Authority

  7 Copy quote

• Hollywood loves to typecast, and I guess they saw me as a violent guy.

  Gene Hackman

  Guy, Hollywood, Saws

  11 Copy quote

• I was trained to be an actor, not a star.

  Gene Hackman

  Stars, Actors

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  8 Copy quote

• I'm not a sentimental guy.

  Gene Hackman

  Guy, Sentimental

  5 Copy quote

• Once, I optioned a novel and tried to do a screenplay on it, which was great fun, but I was too respectful. I was only 100 pages into the novel and I had about 90 pages of movie script going. I realized I had a lot to learn.

  Gene Hackman

  Fun, Pages, Scripts

  6 Copy quote

• Nothing counts so much as family, the rest are just strangers. (as Nicholas Earpp in Wyatt Earp, 1994)

  Gene Hackman

  Stranger

  5 Copy quote

• I'm disappointed that success hasn't been a Himalayan feeling.

  Gene Hackman

  Feelings, Disappointed

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  7 Copy quote

• My grandfather had been a newspaper reporter, as was my uncle. They were pretty good writers and so I thought maybe somewhere down the line I would do some writing.

  Gene Hackman

  Uncles, Writing, Grandfather

  8 Copy quote

• My wife and I take what we call our Friday comedy day off. We watch standup comics on TV. The raunchier the better. We love Eddie Izzard.

  Gene Hackman

  Friday, Wife, Watches

  11 Copy quote

• I went in the Marines when I was 16. I spent four and a half years in the Marines and then came right to New York to be an actor. And then seven years later, I got my first job.

  Gene Hackman

  Jobs, New York, Marine

  6 Copy quote

• You go through stages in your career that you feel very good about yourself. Then you feel awful, like, 'Why didn't I choose something else?' But overall I'm pretty satisfied that I made the right choice when I decided to be an actor.

  Gene Hackman

  Careers, Choices, Awful

  "Eighty-one Years. Seventy-nine Movies. Two Oscars. Not One Bad Performance". Interview with Michael Hainey, www.gq.com. June 1, 2011.

  5 Copy quote

• If I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best.

  Gene Hackman

  Stars, Play, Guy

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  6 Copy quote

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