Coyote Quotes

“No one knows how hard we work. We work about an 80- to 100-hour week minimum, and by the time you’re let go or spit out at the end of the day, you barely have time to brush your teeth.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with West Coast Live Show

“Acting is about discovering what’s true in the moment. It’s playing jazz on your own nervous system.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Tricycle, The Buddhist Review

“There’s an ambiguity as to whether I’m a good guy or a bad guy, and a sense of complexity that’s not very consistent with mainstream America.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with GQ

“When preparing a role, you invite your unconscious to dance with you, and demons get called up – you invite ghosts to the dance. They come.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Philadelphia Daily News

“Though I’m quite well known and respected in Europe, I’m not a bankable actor in America by any stretch of the imagination.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Los Angeles Times

“A film set is the most sexless place in the world.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with San Jose Mercury News

“I understand why they cast me as lawyers, because I can wear the suits but what is it about my face and demeanor that suggests crappy writing?”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Philadelphia Inquirer

“I always find that the posture of the character, or his dialect or some adjustment that changes the way my body feels, functions like a mask. It gives me a much bigger field to run around in.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Los Angeles Times

“Acting is not my greatest gift. I wish I was a genius as an actor because it’s my livelihood. I love it, and I like to do it, or I wouldn’t. I don’t think it’s easy. People like Gene Hackman or DeNiro invest the totality of their existence in it. They’re artists. I just don’t have that kind of talent.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with High Times

“I think you have a responsibility as the villain which is pretty different from the hero’s responsibility. If you have any kind of a social or political conscience at all, the first thing you want to do is make malevolence recognizable to people, almost as a kind of teaching aid.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with LA Times

“It’s a gypsy life. I’m a migrant laborer. I’m hired and I go to work. It’s not like I’m a Kevin Costner and I get millions of dollars a movie and I can stay at home and wait for the right role. There’s a misconception that we as actors have that much choice. I always look for excellence first…if the characters are alive. If they’re not, secondly, I have to ask, ‘Do I need the money?’ It’s not like I can wait three years for my next script… Am I an outsider? Yeah, I think I’m still an outsider. You don’t see me banking any big studio movies as a headliner.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Chicago Tribune

“What intrigues me is to see how much you can do without changing your looks – how, by just changing the wiring, twisting the dials a little bit, you can create another reality people can accept within the same face. Attitude changes face. And, after a while, this self – this corpus – can do anything.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The Austin American-Statesman

“In another era, I could have been a Robert Ryan, who worked all the time. But it doesn’t bother me that I don’t get the big films. It would be fun to make Terminator, but I’m not really interested. It does bother me, however, that I don’t get the little, interesting films. That’s the part of the equation I don’t understand.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with 'Sixties Radicals, Then and Now' by Ron Chepesiuk

“There’s a lot of concord between Zen practice and acting. Zen practice takes you down to ground zero. It’s like having a clean piece of paper with which you assemble a character. The truth is, once you’ve gotten the character, the way he walks, his posture, his dialect, his accent, the process still comes down to being in the moment. You take impulses from the environment, your nervous system and the other actors.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with Gaylynn Baker

“I like working with women directors. It’s more complicated in the best sense. The language of acting is nuance. It’s a language that’s natural to women. With a woman director, it’s always about the color and shading. There’s not a subtext of who’s in charge, as there often is when a man directs.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with The Boston Globe

“Nobody hires me because I look like Richard Gere. I’m not that kind of guy. I get hired basically because I’m good at what I do and I’m smart. I’m one of a number of actors who are really there to serve the script.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with The Lexington Herald-Ledger

“Of course it’s flattering to know that people are interested in you, but I would never have been hired a second time if people weren’t interested in me. So I know that. I don’t need to go out of my way to get flattery. And if I wanted flattery, I would go into the guru business, where people would worship me directly.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with Albany Times Union

“After E.T., I was out of work for nine months. After Cross Creek, I was out of work for ten months. After Jagged Edge, I was out of work for eight months. You have spurts of activity, then long hiatuses. It’s a tough life, and your success is not necessarily based on your talent.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with The Austin American-Statesman

“Do you know that great singing-bad exercise? You get someone in acting class and tell them, ‘I’d like you to sing this song now, as badly as you can.’ And they do, and you say, ‘No, no, you can do worse than that.’ Until finally they have let it all go, and so we all try to be smart. We all try to be witty and we all try to be talented. Especially guys like us. I think it’s smarter to know when to be dumb.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with Whole Earth Review

“Buddhism makes people receptive to the implications and facts of interdependence at the same time that they’re working to still fear, hatred and delusion.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with LA Times

“Judaism has three vessels — culture, intellectual tradition and religious practice. When I meet rabbis who give me a hard time I remind them that I’ve sailed on two of those vessels, but Judaism is as foreign to me as anything else.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Jewish Bulletin of No. California

“Buddhism helped me to get out of a rut I was in in the sixties – we were always trying to make a separate kingdom, to dream an alternative society. Pondering interdependence made me realize that there is no outside place to stand.“

Peter Coyote, in interview with Tricycle, The Buddhist Review

“It seems pretty obvious to me that the Judeo-Christian paradigm isn’t working for a lot of people. There are intellectual flaws in it, and also some character flaws in the people practicing it. I see a lot of New Age stuff as an attempt to come to terms with something that’s real. Unfortunately, I also see that the same character flaws that are making the Judeo-Christian world view not work, are turning a lot of New Age practice into bullshit.“

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with Elizabeth Gaylynn Baker

“Buddhism makes people receptive to the implications and facts of interdependence at the same time that they’re working to still fear, hatred and delusion.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with LA Times

“Judaism has three vessels — culture, intellectual tradition and religious practice. When I meet rabbis who give me a hard time I remind them that I’ve sailed on two of those vessels, but Judaism is as foreign to me as anything else.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Jewish Bulletin of No. California

“Buddhism helped me to get out of a rut I was in in the sixties – we were always trying to make a separate kingdom, to dream an alternative society. Pondering interdependence made me realize that there is no outside place to stand.“

Peter Coyote, in interview with Tricycle, The Buddhist Review

“It seems pretty obvious to me that the Judeo-Christian paradigm isn’t working for a lot of people. There are intellectual flaws in it, and also some character flaws in the people practicing it. I see a lot of New Age stuff as an attempt to come to terms with something that’s real. Unfortunately, I also see that the same character flaws that are making the Judeo-Christian world view not work, are turning a lot of New Age practice into bullshit.“

Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with Elizabeth Gaylynn Baker

“I challenge any politician in the United States to live on welfare for one month. To pretend that people on welfare are being coddled is a preposterous fiction; a smoke-screen to deflect attention from the fact that even after the fall of Russia, policy makers are preserving a Cold War military budget three times the size of any other on the Planet.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Democratic National Convention Diary

“We are living the culture of capital. We believe that if you are good, you will be rewarded with wealth and if you have wealth, that means you were good.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with San Jose Mercury News

“I think that the political system is less accessible; it’s wrapped up by big money. I choose to make my contribution in the cultural arts.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The LA Times

“I can’t put on a tuxedo and go to an environmental event in a 7,000-square-foot house in L.A. that uses enough electricity to power an entire African village.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Omnibus

“How do we know that Medicare premiums have to rise if we cut the military budget or the criminal justice system budget? Who says?”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Politically Incorrect

“Americans think freedom is being able to shop where you want, or to build any house you want on your property. They know nothing about walking around a country like you own it, like it’s yours, and living in a culture where people talk, and instead of one political party, you have ten. Where people are debating ideas and political philosophy, and they’re not afraid of intellectualism, and they’re not afraid to be smart and educated.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Ron Hogan

“I’d love the opportunity to talk about pornography and obscenity because I have my own very clear, stringent definitions… Let’s talk about the obscenity of people stepping over other people in cardboard boxes on their way to the opera. Let’s talk about selling cocaine to finance anti-Communist activities in Latin American countries, which the voters and Congress have voted down. I’m ready to talk about that in a hot minute and to pose all that against one movie (Bitter Moon) that has some dirty words in it and deals with one questionable man’s ideas on sexuality. Let’s talk! I’m formidable at this.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with The LA Times

“I think we are creating an anti-government counterculture. All of these Army of God bombings, the Waco incident… are evident of a large counterculture which is growing in response to the hard-heartedness of the government, the cruelty of its economic practices and policies. They are an armed and dangerous counterculture, and it remains to be seen what havoc they are going to wreak on America.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with San Francisco Bay Guardian

“I think we are creating an anti-government counterculture. All of these Army of God bombings, the Waco incident… are evident of a large counterculture which is growing in response to the hard-heartedness of the government, the cruelty of its economic practices and policies. They are an armed and dangerous counterculture, and it remains to be seen what havoc they are going to wreak on America.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in interview with Interview with San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Dylan’s detachment is impeccable. He sings as one already dead, beyond the pull of superficial temptations, beyond the expectation that things might get better or ever be different. Yet, the songs themselves and the effort to create them, are his most eloquent statement of hope.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Tracking Bob Dylan

“On a trip to London in 1969 with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead – “We thought the Beatles were brilliant musicians and wanted to see what their lives were about. It turned out that they weren’t very interesting, but we loved the London scene and had the opportunity to meet underground people from all over Europe. It was a party.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Americans will not blink at showing the most intricate acts of murder and dismemberment, but they will react in outrage at frank discussions of sexuality. I can’t tell whether it’s anything more than a cultural peculiarity.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The LA Times

“Nudity sells soap on French television. The Europeans joke about our hang-ups. They say, ‘In America, if you kiss a breast, it’s an X rating. If you hack off a breast, it’s an R.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with San Jose Mercury News

On having a voice similar to Henry Fonda “I’ve had to deal with that all my life. I can’t take much credit for it.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The Chicago Tribune

“Janis Joplin was a money magnet and she was under pressure to be a salable commodity. Part of that commodity was being the tough, boozy, two-fisted broad who always went home alone.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in interview with Twin Cities Reader

On Hillary Clinton “I like the idea of a strong First Lady. I like ‘uppity’ women. I’ve appreciated her outspoken intrusion of a feminine point of view into policy.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in interview with Politics Now

“There was this thing about revolved around Albert (Grossman) as the manager of Janis and Dylan and the hippest of the hip. There was a meanness, an edgy kind of competition. People had to be on their toes. You got the feeling of ins and outs; when you were on top, it was fine, but you could lose status quickly and suddenly be excluded.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in interview with Music Central

“When I look back, most of the momentous, political and life choices that I made were in pursuit of some woman or another.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in interview with Music Central

“I inherited my dad’s temper and I struggle with it to this day. I see myself inflicting it on my own son and I am mystified that it still floats through time like an aberrant gene.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The San Francisco Examiner

“Fearlessness, according to Don Juan is one of the first great enemies of mankind; the first hurdle one has to pass en route to real knowledge. I guess you can intuit from how often I use “fearsome” what an issue it has been for me. An ongoing struggle.“

Peter Coyote, in interview with Coymoon

“Fearlessness, according to Don Juan is one of the first great enemies of mankind; the first hurdle one has to pass en route to real knowledge. I guess you can intuit from how often I use “fearsome” what an issue it has been for me. An ongoing struggle.“

Peter Coyote, in interview with Coymoon

“I learned to develop a sense of interior privacy that you have as an actor where you operate as if you had a clear cylinder surrounding you that protects you not from the sight of the audience, but from being too impinged upon by them. Even today people will be amazed that I can sit in a room with crying babies and people arguing, and be reading or writing or thinking and detach if I want to.“

Peter Coyote, in interview with New Age Journal

“I’m not sentimental about the ’60s. I don’t feel that my life peaked there. But it was a peak time for the U.S.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The Chicago Tribune

“I spent ten years de-educating myself. I wanted to learn how to live with no money, no future and no security. To learn to live by own wits.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with The Washington Post

“It was a heady experience from which I have never recovered. Sitting down to dinner with 20 people; making music every night. All of your problems are naked before everyone else; your laziness, your weaknesses are put o the table for review.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Omnibus

“It’s not important whether you live communally or whether you live in a village. What finally translates into palpable achievement is your intention. And if your intention is to build community, you will build community whether you live in a nuclear family or a community family… I think it’s a mistake to expect the ’90s to look like the ’60s and to look for the same institutions, but if you look for the way the intentions of the ’60s are being played out in the ’90s, then you’ll be able to follow the track of our contributions.”

Peter Coyote, in interview with Christopher Lyden

“Doing your thing means doing what you want – actualizing your vision. Becoming your own poem… Life as a social art form… It means doing it! It takes no ideology to feed people. It takes no ideology to give something to someone who doesn’t have it.”

Peter Coyote, Voices from the Love Generation by Leonard Wolf

“The Diggers knew what was wrong with the culture and believed that if we created enough examples of “free-life” by actually acting them out on the streets, without the safety-net of a stage, then people would have alternatives to society’s skimpy menu of life choices. But the strain of inventing a culture is exhausting. Everything comes up for review. No limit or taboo is sacred, especially when the investigation is coupled to belief in a high and noble mission. If our souls know no limits, why should our bodies? Drugs became the fuel for imaginative and physical transcendence.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in the introduction to Ringolevio

“Our parents came out of the Depression and built this permissive loony bin of a culture and the kids grew up knowing they were being shortchanged. They were not getting vital stuff. Part of the energy for the Haight was this hunger for real experience.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, Bill Graham Presents by Bill Graham and Robert Greenfield

“I actually wrote this book to my children.  Many of her friends have asked me about it. It’s a period that has been redefined by the mass media and Reagan and pundits like George Will. I wanted to get it on record.” 

Peter Coyote, Peter Coyote, in an interview with Joey Berlin about his book 'Sleeping Where I Fall'