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My First Car Was Kind Of Sad. My First Car Was When My Parents Had Completely Worn Out Their Toyota Corolla That They Had For 16 Years Or Something. They Gave Me, For My 19th Birthday, This Really Ancient Toyota. So That Was My First Car. And I Loved It. I Thought It Was Amazing, And I Drove It Cross-country. It Was Not Aesthetically Appealing In Any Way. It Was It Fast. It Did Not Handle Well, But It Lasted Forever. I Drove Cross-country And Back, And Then I Gave It To My Sister, And She Drove It For Another 10 Years.

-Ethan Hawke

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My First Car Was

Ethan Hawke

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My First Car Was Kind Of Sad. My First Car Was When My Parents Had Completely Worn Out Their Toyota Corolla That They Had For 16 Years Or Something. They Gave Me, For My 19th Birthday, This Really Ancient Toyota. So That Was My First Car. And I Loved It. I Thought It Was Amazing, And I Drove It Cross-country. It Was Not Aesthetically Appealing In Any Way. It Was It Fast. It Did Not Handle Well, But It Lasted Forever. I Drove Cross-country And Back, And Then I Gave It To My Sister, And She Drove It For Another 10 Years.

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Whenever Actors Tout Off About Doing Their Own Stunts, It's Always ... They're So Protective Of You That I Always Know These Stunt Guys Are So Good [and] They're Never Going To Put You In Danger. But It's Fun To Do Something Kind Of Exciting, Even Something As Simple As Driving 70 Through A Tunnel With Five Motorcycles ... It Sounds Simple, But It's Actually Really Nerve-wracking.

Emma Watson Is My Kids' Favorite Actor On The Planet. They Never Took Me More Seriously Than When I Was Working With Her.

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Most Of Us Float With The River And There Are A Few People Who Move The River. Robert Deniro Is Definitely One Of Them.

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.

My Goal Is To Tell Good Stories. And To Try As Best I Can To Do Something New With Acting. To Learn From The Past And To Be A Relevant Artist. To Make Stories That Are Interesting And Contemporary And To Tell Some Kind Of Emotional Truth.

I Have Had So Many Bad Auditions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There's This Kind Of Incredibly Mistaken Idea That Because It's So Much Cheaper To Roll The Camera Than It Used To Be And It's So Much Easier To Accumulate A Ton Of Footage, That Then You Can Just Go Shoot A Ton Of Footage And The Editor Will Make Sense Out Of It. But If You Don't Have Something Deliberate Made, You're Not Gonna Save It In The Editing Room.

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I'm A Huge Luc Besson Fan. The Fifth Element, I Just Loved That Movie. Luc Cast Me To Play A Small Part In It, And So I Did, Because I Love All His Movies Actually - The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional. His Movies Are So Wonderful. It's Just Fun To Be In It And For It To Be A Sci-fi Movie.

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.

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.

It's Always A Unique Challenge When You're Working With Somebody Where English Is Their Second Language.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I Believe In The Healing Restorative Power Of Art And Communication. And So That's Probably My Rule. But That Doesn't Apply To Bedtimes. And Stuff Like That.

How To Make A Scary Movie Human, Take A Movie Like Sinister. How Can I Make That Guy So Real So That The Scary Elements Of It Are More Scary And It Functions As A Genre Movie - As The Way It's Supposed To, You Want To Hear A Ghost Story At Midnight, That's A Good One - But How Do You Fill It Up With Humanity Inside, In Staying True To The Genre? You Know? Does That Make Sense?

My First Car Was Kind Of Sad. My First Car Was When My Parents Had Completely Worn Out Their Toyota Corolla That They Had For 16 Years Or Something. They Gave Me, For My 19th Birthday, This Really Ancient Toyota. So That Was My First Car. And I Loved It. I Thought It Was Amazing, And I Drove It Cross-country. It Was Not Aesthetically Appealing In Any Way. It Was It Fast. It Did Not Handle Well, But It Lasted Forever. I Drove Cross-country And Back, And Then I Gave It To My Sister, And She Drove It For Another 10 Years.

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Control Of Your Life

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Helping Someone

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I Thought I Was So Much Smarter Than Everybody. And I'm Not.

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In Truth, The World Is A Complicated Place.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Falling In Love

My Favorite Stories Are Human, So I'm Always Looking For...

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.

Well, There's A Great Marlon Brando Quote That To Do Something Well You Have To Spiritually Marry Your Director. You Have To Be Making The Same Movie They Are In That You Have To Try To Help Their Imagination Be Better, And More Full, And More Fully Realized, But You Can't Have A Different Imagination Because Then You End Up - And You See This A Lot In Movies - Where It Feels Like They Were Making Five Different Films.

Your Development As A Person Should Coincide With Your Development In All Aspects Of Your Life.

I Think That If You Walk Through This Life And I End Up Being A Bad Father, Then It Won't Matter Anything Else I Achieved In My Life. It Will All Be Irrelevant.

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.

I Feel Like Everyone I Meet Is An Imaginary Friend. I Don't Know. The Older I Get The More I Wonder What's Real.

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.

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.

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.

Whenever A Really Passionate, Talented Filmmaker Seems To Have An Interest In Me, I Take It Very Seriously Because I Like To Work.

It Was Never In My Dreams To Make My Personal Life Anybody Else's Business.

I've Always Watched Actors On The Red Carpet Getting Drunk And Making Idiots Of Themselves And Now I'm Happy To Join Their Ranks

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.

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.

I Think Having Nature Be A Part Of People's Lives Helps All Of Us See Ourselves As Part Of Something Larger.

A Good Movie Humanizes People.

In Your Mid-twenties, The Paint Is Still Wet On Who You Are.

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.

I've Always Been Interested In Directing. I Started Acting When I Was Thirteen Years Old, So I've Had Some Desire To Do Something Else In My Life.

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

You Can't Keep Wanting To Be 20 Years Old. Everybody Knows That, But What's In The Next Room?

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.

Everything Is So Finite But That’s What Makes Our Time And Specific Moments So Important.

My Process Differs... My Process For A Richard Linklater Film Is Very Different Than A Process For Training Day.

If I Do Three Movies In A Year, I Don't Feel Like Acting Ever Again.

Its Difficult To Do A Genre Film Well, And It Doesnt Matter If Youre 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.

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.

If You Don't Risk Doing Something Foolish, You'll Never Do Anything Special.

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.

But The Truth Is, I've Never Wanted To Be A Movie Star - And I've Been Pretty Clear About That.

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.

The More Kind Of Head Trippy Sci-fi. I Always Like That. I Was A Big 'twilight Zone' Freak.

Sometimes People, Their Creative Drive Comes From An Energy To Try To Heal Themselves.

Nothing Teaches You Like Getting Leveled. And I Got Leveled In My Early 30s. Nothing Went Exactly The Way I Thought It Would.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There's Something About Knowing Life Is Finite That Makes It So Precious.

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Elizabeth Banks

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