Hawke: "If you can understand the inner life, then you can wear the uniform, the tattoos, or whatnot and realize that the things that are different about us become superficial."

Hawke: "There's something about knowing life is finite that makes it so precious."

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."

Hawke: "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."

Hawke: "Often we imagine that we will work hard until we arrive at some distant goal, and then we will be happy. This is a delusion. Happiness is the result of a life lived with purpose. Happiness is not an objective. It is the movement of life itself, a process, and an activity. It arises from curiosity and discovery. Seek pleasure and you will quickly discover the shortest path to suffering."

Hawke: "Without a little agony, none of us would bother to learn a thing."

Hawke: "Other people, friends, brothers, sisters, neighbors, spouses, even your mother and I are not responsible for your happiness. Your life is your responsibility, and you always have the choice to do your best. Doing your best will bring happiness. Do not be overconcerned with avoiding pain or seeking pleasure. If you are concentrating on the results of your actions, you are not dedicated to your task."

Hawke: "But the truth is, I've never wanted to be a movie star - and I've been pretty clear about that."

Hawke: "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."

Hawke: "It was never in my dreams to make my personal life anybody else's business."

Hawke: "The devil is seductive, and so guns are glorious in the culture. I understand there's a case to be made. For instance, Spike Lee said something like this, that you can't have a scene with drugs in a film that doesn't secretly make you want to do drugs. In the same vein, it's hard to make a movie that's anti-violence because the very nature of photographing violence eroticises it. But I'm not so sold that that's true."

Hawke: "It is quite rare to find people who are really dedicated to a level of excellence. Most of us are really quite lazy most of the time."

Hawke: "I like that there's a certain inherent drama to those jobs that is exciting to tell stories about and it's still real life. I'm a little less interested in the current fad of being obsessed with superheroes and things that are so out of the box."

Harke: "Life's hard. It's supposed to be. If we didn't suffer, we'd never learn anything."

Hawke: "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."

Hawke: "The truth is that the more you get paid, the less freedom you have. They never pay you for nothing."

Hawke: "At every turn, when humanity is asked the question, 'Do you want temporary economic gain or long-term environmental loss, which one do you prefer,' we invariably choose the money."

Hawke: "If I do three movies in a year, I don't feel like acting ever again."

Hawke: "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."

Hawke: "In your mid-twenties, the paint is still wet on who you are."

Hawke: "In all of our society, but especially in Hollywood, there is an obsession with perfection that can lead to self-loathing and neurosis and all that kind of stuff."

Hawke: "We live in a funny time. If you don't go corporate, you can't compete. You're relegated as irrelevant. People used to admire that."

Hawke: "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."

Hawke: "I kill flies, I eat meat, you know, whatever."

Hawke: "If my kids are doing well, then my life is going pretty well. And if my kids aren't doing well, it doesn't matter how the other elements of my life are. It's kind of amazing to have a context like that. This is really wonderful."

Hawke: "The older I get, the more I realize how rare it is to meet a kindred spirit."

Hawke: "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."