Top 60 Harry Dean Stanton Quotes

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.

I could have made it as a singer, but I went with acting – surrendered to it, in a way.

There is no answer. That’s what Buddhism says. The Void, oblivion, no answer. To be in that state is an enlightened state.

I was in a movie called ‘Twister,’ and in it, I had to hit a golf ball off of a roof with a driving wood. The guy who owned the place where we shot showed me how to do it, and I hit the ball about 150 yards.

I change every day. I’m still changing.

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.

The first music I remember hearing was the traditional songs of Kentucky – things like ‘Roll Along Kentucky Moon.’

But I’m not imaginative. I couldn’t look into the future, like Star Wars or Robots or anything like that.

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.

Sam Shepard is a brilliant writer.

I don’t believe in singing lessons. You can sing or you can’t.

Everything changes every day.

I was trained on the stage, and I can do stage as well as I can do movies, but I prefer films.

I used to sing when I was six years old. When the family would leave the house, I’d get up on the stool and sing. ‘T for Texas, T for Tenessee, T for Thelma, the gal that made a wreck out of me.’ I was in love with my babysitter. She was 18. I was six.

My favorite films are ‘Paris, Texas’ and ‘Repo Man.’

Singing and acting are actually very similar things. Anyone can sing and anyone can be a film actor. All you have to do is learn.

‘Paris, Texas’ gave me a chance to play compassion, and I’m spelling that with a capital C.

Silence is the most powerful state.

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.

When man began to think he was a separate person with a separate soul, it created a violent situation.

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.

I worked with the best directors – Martin Scorsese, John Huston, David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock was great.

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.

My father and mother were not that compatible. I don’t think they had a good wedding night, and I was the product of that. We weren’t close.

Nothing is important.

I have to wait and see what happens. Because nobody’s in charge.

I’ve received a lot of compliments. People come right up to me on the street. They recognize me.

Every actor is a character actor.

You want people walking away from the conversation with some kernel of wisdom or some kind of impact.

I think every actor wants to play those big parts. In the very first play I ever did, I remember understanding all the characters in it. I always felt I could play anyone.

I’ve been blessed. I’ve worked with a lot of good people.

People kept asking me, ‘When are you singing again?’ so I kept doing it. It was that simple.

I made it a point not to graduate. I thought that was a positive, independent kind of statement.

All organized religions are basically the same.

I’ve got a pretty iconoclastic attitude about all institutions myself. And I just think the church was corrupted right after Christ was killed.

People know you as an actor, and labels are so comfortable for people. That syndrome is always hard to get past.

California is full of Mexican culture and Mexican music.

I do the same series of five exercises 21 times each day – an ancient Tibetan practice that stimulates your chakras.

I’m big into Eastern concepts. The horror of life, the love of children, the whole phantasmagoria – it’s all meaningless. Be still, and see what happens. All of life unfolds perfectly. You have to get beyond consciousness.

I don’t blame anyone but myself for the kind of parts I got. To blame external circumstances is absolute folly.

I never liked being ordered around – which, of course, was an overreaction. I eventually found out that I didn’t mind being ordered around at all when it was by someone who knew what he was doing.

I don’t recall what the first record I bought was, but I definitely remember hearing Creedence’s ‘Born on the Bayou’ and going out and buying it. The guitar and drums in that band were really good. I loved the words to the title track, and Fogerty’s voice sounded just great.

I have a good ear for languages.

I liked ‘Repo Man.’ Satire.

I am an actor and this is holding the mirror up to nature, as it were.

I just wasn’t psychologically made to get married or, God forbid, be a father.

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.

I was singing the blues when I was six. Kind of sad, eh?

I was in World War Two at the battle of Okinawa.

I’m just dealing with what’s happening, with what is. Joy, happiness, good, bad, all those terms are meaningless to me.

I’ve never seen a Western that was really truthful. Most are just morality plays. Good guys and bad guys – and the good guys always win, whereas in reality, most of the sheriffs were as bad as the gangsters they were after.

The first film I ever remember – I think my mother took me to it – was called ‘She Married Her Boss’ with Melvyn Douglas.

‘Pretty In Pink’ was a huge hit for me.

I know little stories that happen to people around me, and I can repeat that in a way that has some color.

I play myself all the time, on camera and off. What else can I do?

There is no self.

A friend is somebody who doesn’t lie.

If I never did another film after ‘Paris, Texas,’ I’d be happy.

I was the classic killer. I always played an angry man. I think it was because I used to really be like that – I was hostile. And because I had a good sense of theatrical truth, I used my anger and rebelliousness and just went with it. Anger was just a part of me.

I grew up Southern Baptist. In the Bible Belt.