Quotes by John Cusack - Page 3

I grew up in Evanston and lived in Chicago for a long time, in Old Town and Wrigleyville. I did three films when I was in high school. The first was 'Class,' with Rob Lowe. I had a supporting role in that.
John Cusack / Actor
Chicago
Class
Long
School
Time Long Long Time
Rob
Supporting
Supporting Role
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I'm definitely nostalgic about the music of my youth; The Clash and Fishbone and that whole music scene. I still have all that music to this day. There was some great music going on in the late 70s and 80s.
John Cusack / Actor
Clash
Great Music
Nostalgic
Scene
Youth
Music Great Day
Music Scene
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When you see a culture where the intellectual architects of the invasion are not shamed for their behavior but rewarded within the mainstream media culture, black comedy, satire, absurdism is the only response.
John Cusack / Actor
Black
Intellectual
Media
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It's like those high-school yearbook photos that everyone would rather not see: Oh my God, look at that mullet hair. I have those photos too, but for me, they're, like, entire movies. And they show them on cable.
John Cusack / Actor
Yearbook
Hair
Looks
School
Oh
Cable
Entire
Oh My God
Photos
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Death is a billion-dollar business. They can't even pass a law where it takes seven days to get a gun. Why don't you have to go through the same kind of screening you do to get a driver's license? It's totally insane.
John Cusack / Actor
Gun
Insane
Law
License
Screening
Seven
Totally
Driver
Pass
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Once you have opened up prisoner interrogation, wiretapping, border patrol, jailing and the services of the military, when this has been turned into a for-profit business in this endless war, then we're in deep trouble.
John Cusack / Actor
War
Borders
Military
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I remember once acting really cool on a bus with this girl named Stephanie. When I got home, I realized that I had a really big zit on my forehead. If you have acne problems, you really shouldn't be acting like Don Juan.
John Cusack / Actor
Girl
Cool
Home
Acne
Acting
Bus
Juan
Remember
Named
Forehead
Problems
Realized
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I think that taking night trains or meeting someone on the road is pretty romantic. I've done a couple of things like that. I've surprised someone in Paris. And hopefully, when you surprise someone, they're happy to see you.
John Cusack / Actor
Happy
Romantic
Couple
Done
Hopefully
Night
Paris
Surprise
Thinking
Pretty
Trains
Meeting
Road
Taking
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I was working with a great actress - a superior artist in every way - and she really liked Celine Dion. I tried very hard, but I couldn't understand it. I just can't listen to Celine Dion! So I guess music is a deal breaker.
John Cusack / Actor
Breaker
Music Great Way
Superior
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I think good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess. You don't actually consummate it, but you get to pretend, imagine what it would be like.
John Cusack / Actor
Affair
Chemistry
Good Actors
Imagine
Mess
Good People See
Actor
Actually
Consummate
Pretend
Immediately
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But, you know, I'm sorry, I think democracy requires participation. I mean, I don't want to proselytize but I do feel some sort of duty to participate in the process in some way other than just blindly getting behind a political party.
John Cusack / Actor
Mean
Party
Sorry
Democracy Political Process
Blindly
Participate
Political Party
Requires
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The Sugar Frosted Nutsack is dizzyingly brilliant. Mark Leyner is a hyperkinetic shaman, who flies the banner of rum and candy and writes like a one-eyed feral bandit. His new book is supremely original, delirious and synapse-shattering.
John Cusack / Actor
Book
Sugar
Writing
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I wanted to just be a filmmaker, and I thought I wanted to do all the aspects, and it seemed like as a producer was the best way to do it, because I could have... You never have control on a movie, but you have as much control as you can.
John Cusack / Actor
Aspect
Best Way
Producers
Way
Aspects
Just Be
Producer
Seemed
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Roy, the guy I play in 'The Grifters,' is a guy who had a very bleak life. His mother had him at 13, and then when she was 17 or 18 and he was 4 or 5, they were trapped in a small Texas town somewhere, and she was ready to do anything to get out.
John Cusack / Actor
Bleak
Guy
Mother
Play
Ready
Texas
Trapped
Somewhere
Small
Roy
She
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The reason bin Laden staggered the planes going into the towers was so every camera would be focused on the second tower when the plane hit. It was not only the murder, but the perpetual image of the horror that permeated into people's consciousness.
John Cusack / Actor
Cameras
Consciousness
Focused
People
Perpetual
Would Be
Hit
Bin
Camera
Plane
Second
Tower
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Our parents more or less just kind of wanted us to pursue our passions. Whatever they would have been, they would have helped light the fire. They are very liberal, artistic people, but they didn't force us into acting. They let us find our own ways.
John Cusack / Actor
Acting
Fire
Force
Light
Pursue
Less
Helped
Parents
Just Kind
Liberal
More Or Less
Passions
Ways
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It's something we, guys, have all done. Made tapes for girls, trying to impress them, to meet them on a shared plane of aesthetics. Read them someone else's poetry because they do poetry better than you could do it, because you're too awkward to do it.
John Cusack / Actor
Girl
Aesthetic
Awkward
Guy
Impress
Plane
Shared
Tapes
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There are some good people. But a good chunk of them will lie for no reason at all - it'll be ten o'clock and they'll tell you it's nine. You're looking at the clock and you can't even fathom why they're lying. They just lie because that's what they do.
John Cusack / Actor
Clock
Fathom
Good People
Lying
Nine
People
Reason
Ten
Looking
Chunk
Lie
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I just love the process of working with other actors. It's like jamming with a musician, except it takes a little more effort to get to that place as an actor, because you have the cameras and lights and everything. But I love jamming with these people.
John Cusack / Actor
Cameras
Effort
Light
Musician
People
Process
Love Effort People
Love Process People
Except
Jamming
Lights
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There's also some element of coming of age during the Reagan administration, which everybody has painted as some glorious time in America, but I remember as being a very, very dark time. There was apocalypse in the air; the punk rock movement made sense.
John Cusack / Actor
Age
Administration
Air
America
Apocalypse
Coming Of Age
Dark
Glorious
Movement
Punk
Punk Rock
Remember
Rocks
Everybody
Time Age Remember
Coming
Dark Time
Element
Rock
Painted
Reagan
Sense
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My dad had a commercial film company, so he had a videotape player before anyone. So he got Mel Brooks movies or Citizen Kane or some classic old movies. And every summer the revival house in Evanston would show the great films from the '50s and '60s and '70s.
John Cusack / Actor
Dad
Brooks
Citizen Kane
Player
Revival
Summer
Citizen
Commercial
Mel Brooks
Old Movies
Videotape
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It's supposed to feel good to throw a brick at the right people. There is a long tradition of naming and ridiculing and shaming and calling the villains what they are. Usually it was the artistocracy of the day and satire was the only way to speak truth to power.
John Cusack / Actor
Feel Good
Long
People
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Poe had this curious kind of alchemical courage, where he took all the terrible things and terrors that happened in his life, all this shame and fear and pain, and turned them into great works of art. He was a complex, brilliant person who was just wired too tight.
John Cusack / Actor
Art
Brilliant
Curious
Pain
Shame
Complex
Poe
Terrors
Tight
Wired
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I kept saying that I'd never live in L.A., and I didn't think I would. But that's where the work is, and I ended up making a lot of friends there, and my old friends moved out to Los Angeles too. And also, I think when you're famous, its hard to live in a small town.
John Cusack / Actor
Famous
Los Angeles
Lots Of Friends
Moved
Old Friends
Small Town
Thinking
Angeles
Ended
Los
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You just try to get the best jobs that you can get. Sometimes I produce my own movies, so that's your own sort of vision. That helps things. I don't know what it is. Probably just circumstance. I've definitely been aware of the fact that I want to do different things.
John Cusack / Actor
Jobs
Best Job
Different Things
Produce
Vision
Circumstance
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If you're looking at things with the right set of eyes, people are endlessly fascinating. And then, of course, if you look at it the wrong way, then the whole world is horrible and tedious and boring. That's the battle, really--to keep looking at the world in the right way.
John Cusack / Actor
Battle
Eye
People
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Well, acting itself is a form of rebellion, always. Getting up there in front of people, telling stories - you're kind of going against the grain to begin with, wanting to do that, don't you think? Why else would you do it? Except maybe as kind of a way to affirm your very existence.
John Cusack / Actor
Acting
Existence
Grain
People
Rebellion
Thinking
Always Your People
Begin
Affirm
People Way Always
Wanting
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With acting, you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you're gonna get out of it. It's like the exact opposite of war, where you need an exit strategy. When you're acting, you should get all the way into trouble with no exit strategy, and have the cameras rolling.
John Cusack / Actor
War
Cameras
Exit
Knowing
Opposites
Rolling
Strategy
Opposite
Wanna
Exact
Exact Opposite
Exit Strategy
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Probably Lloyd in 'Say Anything' is the closest to me - or to who I was at the time. It was just a great love story about people in the '80s, and we all tried to make it feel as real as possible. It was such a wonderful time. We didn't leave anything in the gym; we put it all out there.
John Cusack / Actor
Closest
Great Love
Gym
Love Story
People
Real
Wonderful
Love Time Great
Possible
Leave
Story
Tried
Wonderful Time
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I don't agonize over decisions as much these days. The criteria of what's important to me is clear. The insecurity that you feel, and the paranoia that you feel, have been around for a long time - you know it's a liar because it's been lying to you all along - every time you start something new.
John Cusack / Actor
Time
Liars
Lying
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I was never a joiner. I tried - I had people I admired and liked and wanted to hang with, but I ended up starting a theatre company and that took me back to Chicago... I guess I wasn't a scenester in the end. Something must have worked out right, as I'm still here - but I'm only a binge socialite.
John Cusack / Actor
Binge
Chicago
People
Starting
Theatre
Wanted
Me People Never
Admired
Me People End
Liked
Ended
Still
Guess
Hang
In The End
Took
Tried
Worked
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I wanted to just be a filmmaker, and I thought I wanted to do all the aspects, and it seemed like as a producer was the best way to do it, because I could have... You never have control on a movie, but you have as much control as you can. You can push it through, and you can hire the right people.
John Cusack / Actor
Filmmaker
People
Producers
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I think that Poe is so resonant because he represents that part of us that is in misery or sorrowful or wants to explore the darkness. He wrote a great story called 'The Imp of the Perverse' about the instinct towards self-destruction. Poe is the godfather of Goth literature and that whole movement.
John Cusack / Actor
Darkness
Goth
Instinct
Misery
Self
Self Destruction
Sorrowful
Thinking
Explore
Godfather
Great Story
Perverse
Poe
Represents
Resonant
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I remember once acting really cool on a bus with this girl named Stephanie. When I got home, I realized that I had a really big zit on my forehead. If you have acne problems, you really shouldn't be acting like Don Juan. I should have been contrite - and apologized for exposing her to the angry pimple.
John Cusack / Actor
Cool
Acne
Angry
Bus
Exposing
Juan
Apologized
Named
Forehead
Pimple
Problems
Realized
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I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
John Cusack / Actor
Money
Careers
Say Anything
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These people say free markets are the way to go, but wink, wink, the markets aren't really free. They're just a protectionist racket, and we have to pay for it all on every level. It's really quite extraordinary, and immoral, and illegal. These things need to be named, and shamed, and outed, and mocked, and prosecuted.
John Cusack / Actor
Levels
Needs
People
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It seems to me that one thing people do over and over again is try to figure out how to get married, stay married, fall in love, how to rekindle all this stuff. It seems to me to be a pretty eternal theme so I don't know if you can get typecast from making movies about men relating to women. It seems to be what is going on on the planet a lot.
John Cusack / Actor
Men
Eternal
Falling In Love
People
Theme
Love Men Women
Typecast
Love Women Men
Get Married
Making Movies
Planet
Rekindle
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Did you know that the word person comes from the Latin word persona, which means mask? So maybe being human means we invite spectators to ponder what lies behind. Each of us will be composed of a variety of masks, and if we can see behind the mask, we would get a burst of clarity. And if that flame was bright enough, that's when we fall in love.
John Cusack / Actor
Falling In Love
Latin
Lying
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Poets are political, they have to be reflections of their times [because] they're living in their times... Poetry is political in that it's standing in opposition to fascism. Good poetry asks a bunch of questions and asks the audience to interact with themselves or see themselves in it; maybe you like it or you don't like it. But the fascist sort of stuff plays on your fears and tells you to jump on the party line and gives some simple excuses - blame this person.
John Cusack / Actor
Party
Reflection
Simple
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John Cusack Quotes - Page 3

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