"Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors." - Gene Hackman
"I do not like assassins, or men of low character." - Gene Hackman
"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." - Gene Hackman
"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." - Gene Hackman
"If I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best." - Gene Hackman
"If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being." - Gene Hackman
"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." - Gene Hackman
"The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways." - Gene Hackman
"You have a powerful weapon working for you. For you there is no tomorrow and that makes you all very dangerous people!" - Gene Hackman
