JOHN LEGUIZAMO

Marriage is wild. I thought it was this perfect land of happiness and joy. Wrong! After you say you do, you don't for a long time.

To be a comedian, you gotta jokesmith, there's no way around it.

Independent film is for actors that love to act.

Yeah, that came out of a reading. It was great. It's such a fun crew to be with, and we all went out the night before and that really encouraged us to go out and get drunk.

Most of the great directors I've worked with - De Palma, Spike Lee - like rehearsals.

I had a great movement teacher - he showed me how to walk so I wasn't becoming like a cartoon.

He wanted to be a lawyer, couldn't afford it, so he started dealing to go to college - good intention.

Latins for Republicans - it's like roaches for Raid.

I like drama. I love being in a drama where I get to be the funny guy. That's what I really love the most.

My parents were incredibly strict, almost military style.

The thing I gravitated to was being the class clown. It was very competitive.

I love independent films, it's the only place as an actor you're totally allowed to breathe.

Rehearsals make a huge difference.

I see the new Latin artist as a pioneer, opening up doors for others to follow. And when they don't open, we crowbar our way in.

I was familiar with that and 'Rio Bravo.' 'Rio Bravo' was what John Carpenter did, that brilliant move of taking a western and turning it into an urban flick. And from there you got, you know, all the cop genre movies of the time.

Every dad who loves his daughter is not going to want her to go with the penniless slacker loser poet bum, when she could go out with someone who's successful.

At Murry Bergtraum High I wanted to be as different from my father as possible. So I acted out in school, I was very anti-authority.

He thinks he can use the jail for networking to be somebody. In that way, he's always operating.

Why is the world that I see around me mixed, and why is the world I see in movies filled with all white people? Why does it have to be like that?

If everyone in your class has heroes, and they can relate to them in textbooks and literature, and then you don't see any of your heritage there, you feel less than. And I always wanted to be able to make Latin kids like myself feel more than.

You think you've done it all, and then you realize, 'No, there's so much more to do.'

I feel American comedy is a little too light. World cinema, and Latin cinema, is much more comfortable with darker emotions.

I was always writing. I was writing in high school because it was a really competitive school for class clowns; I used to have to write all of my snaps and my disses the night before and then act like I was making it up the next day.

Work for work's sake doesn't thrill me, but when I'm in the zone, I'm creative, and the expression is free.

I have huge respect for whistle-blowers, people who stand up against their bosses and losing their careers, just for truth and justice.