Quotes By John Cusack

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.

I try not to dwell on the past. I'm not a big go-back-and-try-to-relive-your-past kinda person.

I don't want to produce anymore small or independent movies because it's just too hard these days.

I don't tend to think in terms of a moral authority - be a good boy, do good things - more in terms of what feels right.

I feel like I'm a filmmaker; I don't feel I need to yell action and cut.

I think when you get to the point where you don't need to be in love, then you could be in love. You have to just be OK with yourself-and that's a long process.

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.

Sometimes you meet people and you feel like you've known them for a long time.

I was raised Irish Catholic, but I don't consider myself Irish Catholic: I consider myself me, an American.

The British keep employing me, and that makes me like them. It also makes me think they're very intelligent.

The film is not a success until it makes money. It's only good when there's a dollar figure attached to the box office.

I was only in one of the John Hughes films, and I never saw the other ones. I didn't understand them. I kept hearing a really hip 40-year-old person talking in teenagers' mouths.

Usually I do everything reverse. I practice something in movies and then I try it in real life.

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.

Every role you do is kind of a side of yourself. That's why they give you the part.

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.

I read Noam Chomsky. I like some of Gore Vidal's stuff.

If you're going to get into social criticism with absurdity and satire, you can't be politically correct when you do that.

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.

I remember the '80s being about the Cold War and Reagan and the homeless problem and AIDS. To me, it was kind of a dark, depressing time.

Usually I play people who just keep babbling on and on and on.

I have a bit of a rebellious nature.

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.

No, actors go out with actresses as a form of self-flagellation.

People try to keep their past, like kind of holding on to their past. Every Springsteen song talks about that.

Most movies, once the action starts there's no more characters. You say a couple of dumb lines and then there's just explosions until the end.

Well, any time you do anything good, it's man versus himself, right? That's the art, the challenge.

Hopefully as you get older you get more selfless. That would be probably a good goal. I don't know if we do, though.

Nope, no sex scandals yet. But I am open to offers!

I think the more you expose yourself as a celebrity, the less interesting you are to watch in your work, because if you're putting yourself out there all the time, you're not holding anything back.