Quotations from *The Hottest State*
Ethan Hawke
1970- American

“I’m really a Texan,” I said, walking out of the shadows and into the spill of light reflected off the Washington monument. “I only spent my first five years there, but I remember it. Sometimes I want to go back and live like a real man, running errands to the lumberyard, you know, bullshitting with some guy named Jimbo. ‘Sure is hot today, huh, Jim?’ ‘You bet,’ he’d say.”

I had no idea where I was going with this fantasy. I was just really enjoying talking to her.

“Then I’d come home, yell at the dogs, fix some goddamn thing that was broken, and get so hot that I’d just call it a day. I’d kick back on the front porch—no screens; I’d been saying I’d put ’em up for years... I’d light up a Marlboro, open a beer, and play the guitar, mumbling a song I only know half the words to.”

She was watching me and seemed interested, but mostly she was watching where we were going.
—Ethan Hawke, The Hottest State

“A lot of bad things are going to happen to you. First off, you’re going to die. So, that said, there’s not much to worry about. No matter what else happens, you really only have two options: you can either handle things well and be happy, or you can handle them poorly and be miserable.”
—Ethan Hawke, The Hottest State

“Look, William, I’m disappointed. I can’t tell you that I’m not. I thought my life was going to be so much more interesting than it’s turned out. But what am I going to do about it?” She raised her shoulders and smiled at me.

No matter where I went, everything was making me want to cry.
—Ethan Hawke, The Hottest State