My dad was a very violent, frightening and dangerous guy. Next to him, I was this vague kind of kid who walked around, as I still do, gathering impressions. Peter Coyote Read Quote
When I got to Grinnell College, I was part of the black turtleneck sweater and Camel cigarette crowd of poets and writers. Peter Coyote Read Quote
When I went to get my master’s in creative writing at San Francisco State after Grinnell, I joined the moribund remnants of the Actor’s Workshop, until I saw Kay Hayward and Sandy Archer in the San Francisco Mime Troupe and drove down that day to audition. The rest is history. Peter Coyote Read Quote
We spend all this energy keeping our lives normal and safe and predictable, and the result is that our approved cultural safety valve is the movies. So in films, anyway, the hero is obliged to represent the continuance of social values and institutions, and his permission to act is much more seriously limited than the villain’s. Peter Coyote Read Quote
I think it’s good that people value their bodies and take care of them. I think if you cross the line and begin using your body as an asset or as an extension of your vanity, you’ve gone too far. Peter Coyote Read Quote
Young people, for whom I should have been a role model and an uncle, duplicated my worst habits and died as a result. Peter Coyote Read Quote
We put on shows at Golden Gate Park with the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, and the groups were part of the community they emerged out of, not some superstars. We had multiple stages, diversions, communal entertainment. There is something slightly fascistic about sitting in a huge auditorium focusing all the energy on one group far away on stage. Peter Coyote Read Quote
