Quotes from Harry Dean Stanton

I know I've got the ability to bring a sense of menace to the screen. I have that specific competence, and it's generally kept me working.

California is full of Mexican culture and Mexican music.

My feeling or philosophy is closer to Taoism and Zen Buddhism, 'cause it's the most practical.

Do nothing. Do nothing. Let it happen. Don't try.

I grew up Southern Baptist. In the Bible Belt.

I am an actor and this is holding the mirror up to nature, as it were.

The first music I remember hearing was the traditional songs of Kentucky - things like 'Roll Along Kentucky Moon.'

I like to stay home and watch television. The Game Show channel, mostly.

The band I've played with for 10 or 12 years now, we've been all over, but we mostly play in LA.

I hated being typecast in those roles. It was personally limiting, only playing stereotyped heavies. But I got those roles because I was angry, because that's what I projected. I was angry at my mother and father because they didn't get along, angry at the church. On top of that, I had an extreme lack of self-confidence.

I sang barber shop harmony and sort of got into performing. And it just came naturally. Then, when I was in college after the war, I did a play, 'Pygmalion,' by George Bernard Shaw. And from then on, I knew that's what I wanted to do.

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've passed up opportunities. I've avoided the spotlight. I've never been to Academy Awards, didn't relate to them.

The life of a Repo Man is always intense.

Heisenberg, Max Plank and Einstein, they all agreed that science could not solve the mystery of the universe.

Fame in itself is, you know... It involves a whole discussion on just that word, 'fame.' It's a power; it's another degree of power, to be famous. I think it's obvious: you have more influence the more well-known you are. And, hopefully, it's righteously used.

I just want to say, good night, sweet prince, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

You want people walking away from the conversation with some kernel of wisdom or some kind of impact.

I do the same series of five exercises 21 times each day - an ancient Tibetan practice that stimulates your chakras.

I was offered a series by John Carpenter after I did the movie 'Christine,' and I would've been a leading man after that. I would have played a private investigator. And I was offered a great deal - I would be involved in the direction, casting, everything, and whatever. It was whatever an actor wants, and I didn't take it.

I've had offers that could've made me much richer and much more famous than I am.

'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.

You can do stuff onstage that you can't do offstage. You can be angry as hell and enraged and get away with it onstage, but not off.

I've received a lot of compliments. People come right up to me on the street. They recognize me.