John Hawkes Quotes

It was difficult for me because I was searching for the answer for so long, and the answer was right in front of me. Do what I do best.

I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.

The older you get the more you understand what you're doing.

Writing is how I find out what I believe and what I care most deeply about. It's how I sort through the mess of daily experience and try to make sense of it - by stepping out of it for a while. Writing is how I train a searchlight into the darker corners of my self and the world, as I'm sure I'd never do otherwise.

You usually can't tell what's inspiring until you look back on it.

One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.

I think sometimes you need distance to reflect.

You're always thinking, "What does that add up to?" You can't really get a handle on it. I was curious. I felt like it would be an interesting challenge for me to write down what I'd seen and done and learned - all the convolutions captured in one item that I could look at and get some grip on what the hell happened.

The disadvantage of becoming wise is that you realize how foolish you've been.

It's you who are telling me; opening my eyes to things I'd looked at so long that I'd ceased to see them.

Time and reflection change the sight little by little 'till we come to understand.

I have discovered nothing new; I have only perceived what I already knew.

Then I obviously didn't understand what it all meant, but I do now.

I learned from my past.

I think you only see experiences as defining moments with distance.

I write to make sense of things that don't make sense to me.

Sometimes it takes years to really grasp what has happened to your life.

I think I am seeing more clearly now than ever.

I knew I had a lot to say. Not politically - politics have always confused me - but perhaps spiritually.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

This taught me a lesson, but I'm not quite sure what it is.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

Writing is incredibly important to me as a way of handling the world, understanding how it works.