Gene Hackman

“Actors who are in it for any length of time either evolve into directors or drunks.”

“At Christmas, Dustin Hoffman would work at Macy’s - demonstrating toys on a stand.  I brought my son up there, got him to sit real stiff and Dustin did this spiel about this life-size doll.  We did a lot of improvisations at Macy’s.  Crazy stuff, false fights - just everything to disrupt the store.”

“Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.”

“Honesty isn’t enough for me.  That becomes very boring.  If you can convince people what you’re doing is real and it’s also bigger than life - that’s exciting.”

“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.”

“The actor who’s in everything is Gerard Depardieu.  I’ve never seen a French film he wasn’t in except La Cage aux folles, and he might be in the chorus of that for all I know.”

“The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.”

“One tends to forget the pain of movie-making.  I guess it’s like pregnancy - something compels you to go through it again.”

“I do not like assassins, or men of low character.”

“You get to a certain point with the money when it doesn’t really matter.  Uncle Sambo’s going to get most of it, anyway.”

“People in the street still call me Popeye - and The French Connection was 15 years ago.  I wish I’d another hit - and a new nickname.”

“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.”

“I worked for a while as a doorman at a Howard Johnson restaurant in Times Square.  I wore one of those white uniforms with green braid - like something from an American high school band.  My former Marine Corps captain came by, recognised me, looked me up and down, and said: ‘You’re a sorry-looking sunuvabitch.’”

“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.”