Gene Hackman Quotes

• "Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors."
• "I do not like assassins, or men of low character."
• "I wanted to act, but I'd always been convinced that actors had to be handsome. That came from the days when Errol Fyln was my idol. I'd come out of a theater and be startled when I looked in a mirror because I didn't look like Flynn. I felt like him."
• "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."
• "If I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best."
• "If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being."
• "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."
• "The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways."
• "You have a powerful weapon working for you. For you there is no tomorrow and that makes you all very dangerous people!"