That's the great thing about plankton. It pretty much keeps to itself.

- 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

Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.

- Gene Hackman

If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being.

- Gene Hackman

Seventy-five per cent of being successful as an actor is pure luck. The rest is just endurance.

- Gene Hackman

I do not like assassins, or men of low character.

- 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 wit…

- Gene Hackman

Like a duck on the pond. On the surface everything looks calm, but beneath the water those little feet are churning a mile a minute.

- Gene Hackman

Don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining.

- Gene Hackman