Q&A With Gene Hackman
Monday, Jun. 07, 2004
By Rebecca Winters
Time Magazine

Why are you tackling fiction?

I can do it without 90 people standing around waiting for me to perform.
I feel it's creative. And I like the loneliness of it.

Your book is based on your hometown in Illinois. Are you like the
main character?

In some ways. He's very much of a Midwesterner,  a wanderer, self-
deprecating, somewhat naive. I was naive when I first went to New York.
It opened me to experiences and knowledge that I  wouldn't have gotten
if I'd been worldly.

You took time off from making movies to write. Will you go back?

I keep telling myself I don't miss it. The kind of parts that are offered to
me, so many times it's somebody's grandfather. I'm not interested in
playing that. I like when the dynamics are more dangerous.

You've been in three John Grisham films. Did you ask him for writing pointers?

No. He'd probably say, "Stick to movies."
  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994346,00.html
 


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