Quotes by John C. McGinley

About John C. McGinley:

John Christopher McGinley is an American actor, author and former comedian. He is most notable for his roles as Perry Cox in Scrubs, Bob Slydell in Office Space, Captain Hendrix in The Rock, Sergeant Red O'Neill in Oliver Stone's Platoon and Marv in Stone's Wall Street. He has also written and produced for television and film. Apart from acting, McGinley is also an author, a board member and international spokesperson for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, and a spokesperson for the National Down Syndrome Society.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Freedom of speech is, to all Americans, as oxygen is to the human condition. It is a right that has been irreversibly programmed into our hard drive. We are free to speak our minds. An artist's right to express him or herself as best suits their art,...

John C. McGinley

The conventional wisdom with David Mamet is, you do not change a word. And that agrees with me. If you want to change any of David's words, it's like wanting to change the iambic pentameter in Shakespeare - you should do something else.

John C. McGinley

I just can't afford to get bored, because if you've been blessed with a generous imagination, which a lot of actors have, to be engaged, to be stimulated, is to liberate your imagination.

John C. McGinley

I have mixed feelings about 'Car 54, Where Are You?' Because we shot it as a musical and whoever the studio head was at Orion, or whoever the powers that be were, cut all but, like, two musical numbers out of it. That is the same as cutting the music...

John C. McGinley

I'm a homebody. If I'm not working I'm with my family being a dad.

John C. McGinley

I felt (a) it was a great role and (b) I wanted to stay in town. I wanted to stop going to these four month and five month gigs up in Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver or down in Mexico. I wanted to be around my son, Max. This came along and I was lik...

John C. McGinley

As an actor, it's great to play a strong leader with a heart of gold.

John C. McGinley

The learning curve on soaps is through the roof because it's a three-camera setup. There's a master and then there's two singles. And the great thing about soaps, and soap actors will tell you, is that when you get your line wrong, they don't re-shoo...

John C. McGinley

I've always thought Ed Burns was a profoundly underrated actor. He's a great director, obviously. A great director/writer. But I think he's a stunning actor, too.

John C. McGinley

I don't want to be the guy who goes, 'Oh yeah, blah blah blah... everyone freaking well knows me.' Because that's not the case. Once in a while, someone will remember some silly thing I did and then they feel good. And they go, 'Oh, hey, Michael Bolt...

John C. McGinley

I have no issue with being a character actor. If you've been around enough that people are able to segregate you into that category, it means you're working. So that's good!

John C. McGinley

I would love to have a photographic memory. It would come in handy with the rants I'm given on Scrubs... often on short notice!

John C. McGinley

My son walked up to Nicole on the beach and I was throwing the ball for the dogs in the ocean. I was like, 'Max, you get the dogs. I'll talk to the hot blondes.'

John C. McGinley

I like to be in waiting rooms with people as they're auditioning, because their terror calms me.

John C. McGinley

Dr. Cox mentors the rookie doctors with a spoonful of dirt and then a cup of sugar. I see him as an archetypal descendent of two of my favorite curmudgeonly characters: Lou Grant and Louie De Palma.

John C. McGinley

TV tends to look for the living equivalents of squeaky-clean Kens and Barbies, but with my dial I'm more like Ken's dirty old uncle.

John C. McGinley

I got the pilot for 'Scrubs' sent to me, and in the margin for Dr. Cox, it said 'a John McGinley type.' So when I went in to audition, I said to Billy Lawrence, who's a dear friend of mine, I said, 'Well, I'm John McGinley.'

John C. McGinley

I wanted to be Red Barber, Mel Allen or Howard Cosell. I loved their personalities and all of their sounds.

John C. McGinley

You go see 'Timothy Green,' and tell me if it doesn't rock your world. I loved it. I loved every frame of it.

John C. McGinley

I worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange back when they used to write tickets. And I was just a runner. So a guy would write a ticket and I would run it, and it was endless. That was a hard job. And I dug tungsten... for a coal company in...

John C. McGinley

Author Bio

  • NameJohn C. McGinley
  • Descriptionborn 1959; American actor
  • BornAugust 3, 1959
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionScreenwriter; Film Producer; Actor; Voice Actor; Film Director