I am not into any religions. I have been mostly influenced by Eastern religions - Taoism, the essence of Hinduism and Buddhism. But my belief is not having any beliefs.
— Harry Dean Stanton
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.
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.
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.
I can understand why it takes some people a long time to really be a singer. You have to find out, 'Why am I singing? What am I doing this for?' I do it because I enjoy it, and philosophically, music is a catalyst. It's a refining agent.
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.
Casting is a convoluted kind of trip. No one likes to be typed - even if you're a cab driver, or whatever you do.
My feeling or philosophy is closer to Taoism and Zen Buddhism, 'cause it's the most practical.
I do all the classics, like Dylan, Kristofferson, Jimmy Reed, Mexican mariachi songs, some jazz songs from the '30s. Cole Porter's 'Begin the Beguine,' that's one of my favorites.
I think I'm blessed with a pretty tough psyche.
Study up on the Eastern religions. They're the only ones that are realistic. There's no answer, see.
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.
There is no self.
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.
I'm very fortunate. I don't think anyone should have a job that they don't really enjoy.
The band I've played with for 10 or 12 years now, we've been all over, but we mostly play in LA.
I've never been ambitious about recording.
I grew up Southern Baptist. In the Bible Belt.
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.
You get older. In the end, you end up accepting everything in your life - suffering, horror, love, loss, hate - all of it.
I was in World War Two at the battle of Okinawa.
People know you as an actor, and labels are so comfortable for people. That syndrome is always hard to get past.
I have to wait and see what happens. Because nobody's in charge.
I've been blessed. I've worked with a lot of good people.
The most terrifying thing for most everybody in the whole Western World is to take responsibility for your own life and to experience real freedom.
I like to do nothing.
'Alien?' Oh, yeah. I still get fanmail almost every week, pictures from all over the world on that movie. That's one of the most popular films I've done.
'Pretty In Pink' was a huge hit for me.
The first music I remember hearing was the traditional songs of Kentucky - things like 'Roll Along Kentucky Moon.'
I watch television. Game shows - I hate the hosts and the people on them, and I love the questions and the answers.
I've always been a searcher - you know, a hunter. I'm certainly not the only one. They say actors shouldn't get political and everything, but you can't separate yourself. You can't disconnect yourself from anything.
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.
Speech lessons probably did more for my singing voice - they teach you breathing, resonance.
I'm not really into religion.
All organized religions are basically the same.
I would've preferred to blossom earlier in life.
If I never did another film after 'Paris, Texas,' I'd be happy.
'Paris, Texas' is the first film that I've totally cared about, the first movie I totally wanted to do - and that after 27 years that I considered my prison term.
People kept asking me, 'When are you singing again?' so I kept doing it. It was that simple.
I met Dylan on 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.' We buddied around for quite a while after that. We jammed together; he liked my Mexican songs.
I've got a pretty iconoclastic attitude about all institutions myself. And I just think the church was corrupted right after Christ was killed.
I'm just dealing with what's happening, with what is. Joy, happiness, good, bad, all those terms are meaningless to me.
I just wasn't psychologically made to get married or, God forbid, be a father.
There is no answer. That's what Buddhism says. The Void, oblivion, no answer. To be in that state is an enlightened state.
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.
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.
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 change every day. I'm still changing.
I realized early on that if I became an actor, I could play a writer and a sculptor and a painter and be all the things you just don't have time to be in your lifetime. I could get to learn about all of them.
I've received a lot of compliments. People come right up to me on the street. They recognize me.
