A biography for Harry Dean Stantonhasn’t been written yet.
“I like to do nothing.”
“What did we play in the Harry Dean Stanton Band? It was old blues and country - all covers. I never wrote anything.”
“You want people to feel something when you tell a story, whether they feel happy or whether they feel sad.”
“I grew up Southern Baptist. In the Bible Belt.”
“I was in World War Two at the battle of Okinawa.”
“You get older. In the end, you end up accepting everything in your life - suffering, horror, love, loss, hate - all of it.”
“I always had a dramatic flair. I'd like to dress up like a cowboy, play make-believe. But I didn't realize acting was something I had to do until I got to college.”
“It's just so frustrating when you're in a supporting role because you only get to express a part of yourself.”
“My father and mother were not that compatible. I don't think they had a good wedding night, and I was the product of that. We weren't close.”
“A friend is somebody who doesn't lie.”
“Speech lessons probably did more for my singing voice - they teach you breathing, resonance.”
“I do all the classics, like Dylan, Kristofferson, Jimmy Reed, Mexican mariachi songs, some jazz songs from the '30s. Cole Porter's 'Begin the Beguine,' that's one of my favorites.”
“I met Dylan on 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.' We buddied around for quite a while after that. We jammed together; he liked my Mexican songs.”
“I had opportunities to be a lot more successful, but for some reason or other - the way I was particularly genetically wired - I turned down a lot of opportunities.”
“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 could have been a lot more famous and played leading men and everything. For whatever reason, I didn't go for it.”
“I have to wait and see what happens. Because nobody's in charge.”
“I could have been a writer.”
“I really liked the Mariachi singing in Westerns.”
“All organized religions are basically the same.”