John Hawkes Quotes

My rejection of the idea of entertainment in its current form is based on the audience that comes with it.

The function of the novel is the exploration of the human condition. Really, that's what it's all about.

For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence?

Television is much better crafted today then in the 70s. The content is less positive but I'm one of those that feel our entertainment reflects our world, it's not a driver - art imitates life.

I particularly admire are Mark Twain and Jerome K. Jerome who wrote in a certain tone of voice which was humane and understanding of humanity, but always ready to annotate its little foibles. I think I'd lay my cards down on that, and say that it's that that I'm trying to do.

It could be argued that every age gets the comfort savagery writer it deserves.

Stories in which the destruction of society occurs are explorations of social fears and issues that filmmakers, novelists, playwrights, painters have been examining for a long time.

Acting is an opportunity for me to try to explore and examine and expose humanity's weaknesses that are intrinsic to our nature as humans and learn from them; thereby, it's like a sociological expose.

Ryan Murphy, he basically tries to find something that's a pulse, a pressure point in our culture, and he grabs it, and he squeezes it. I think 'Freak Show' has a lot to do with the entertainment industry and the way we entertain ourselves: the objectification of people and the lengths we'll go for our own amusement.

Not just art for art's sake, but I want to have films out there that will provoke authentic, holistic conversations about the human condition. And not provide the easy answers, but put it out there.

'Cloud Atlas' is for everybody. The main character in the movie is humanity.

I can't find anything wrong with Ashton Kutcher. I think he's great. It's odd that in America there's a very mixed reaction to him. I think those that have only seen him on 'Punk'd' or 'That 70s Show' get him wrong. There's much more to him than those characters or that persona he plays in those shows.

It strikes me as gruesome and comical that in our culture we have an expectation that man can always solve his problems. This is so untrue that it makes me want to cry — or laugh.

'Belko Experiment' was the harshest, most extreme movie I ever made. But I still think there's a very cohesive center to it that wasn't always in my early films. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I think it's a commercial thing.

My focus isn't Hollywood; my focus is using Hollywood as an example. Because what happens here does happen everywhere. It's just a really concentrated and tense version here.

Humans are complex, and I think in entertainment in general, it's very easy to put people in boxes.

I think what's so brilliant about 'Black Mirror' is that it is a mirror into our own messed-up psyches.

Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a darker light the world in which they live.

Vladimir Nabokov liked to examine cruelty and the human condition. That didn't mean he was cruel; there's no evidence he kicked puppies just for the fun of it. Similarly, 'Black Mirror' likes to examine possible dystopias, but that doesn't mean the show is cynical enough to endorse them.

Sci-fi is just as much about social science as technology.

Shakespeare did not consider himself the legislator of mankind. He faithfully records man's problems and does not evidently propose to solve them.

Because of 'World War Z' and 'The Walking Dead,' I can't pitch a modest little zombie film which is meant to be sociopolitical.

'Duck Dynasty' is a ridiculous show, and long may it wave. America and democracy will endure. They've seen a lot worse.

Hollywood is a reflection of a general climate that we live in.

I try to be as honest as I possibly can about the contradictions within my own heart and thereby get to something 'true' and revealing and important about contemporary American culture and human nature.