John C. Reilly Quotes

I'm working class. Not because my family have always been skint or because I'm from the grim north, but because I am from a class of people who believe in work. In paying their way.

I work hard, and I haven't done badly in life. But I pretty much came from very modest roots... I go home on my train; I cut my own grass... I don't have anything against people that are more elite, but it's just not who I am or what I'm about.

All of the guys I know from Jersey held onto this feeling of, 'We're always just working.'

Having parents who were hard working, blue collar, and staunchly independent, neither political party's positioning really impressed me.

My dad had this rock hard body and would work 12- to 13-hour days. The guys he worked with were scrap-iron guys. Nobody on that road crew had read a book in 10 years, but there was something about the way they lived I really admired.

I'd never put all my chips anywhere, because I don't want to close any doors, but I was raised in a very blue-collar family. I was raised by parents who said, 'If you don't go to work every day, you're not contributing', so that's my mentality. I have to work every day; I have to bring home a paycheck.

I think these days a lot of the younger generation feels that the world owes them something. But you've got to get off your backside and you've got to do all the crap stuff, too.

My family were really hard-working, blue-collar people, and I didn't know the idea or concept of working and having fun. I thought you just worked and made money to support your family.

I'll tell you, in my life I've never once have seen a Hispanic panhandler, because in our community, it would be viewed as shameful to be out on the street begging. Those are all conservative values - faith, family, hard work, responsibility.

I work hard and I don't come from a rich family.

I was poor. When you're poor you work, and when you're rich you expect somebody to hand it to you. So I think being reasonably poor is very good for people.

My mum's from Yorkshire and my parents aren't snotty or posh - they're very hard workers, both of them.

We're working people, and that's what we like to do, work.

I've always been a blue collar guy, and I think it shows in my body of work and the way my career has developed.

My dad was a longshoreman in the Port of Miami. Tough job. I worked down there in the summer once. One day. Never again. My dad was a no-nonsense guy. As a kid, I hated his rules, but as a man, I understand what he was teaching. He taught me you have to work hard for everything you get.

I come from a very working class background. My dad worked in a factory for 40 years. We all put ourselves through school.

I've never been able to feel that there is anything undignified about making your living by the sweat of your brow.

Labor, in fact, to Spanish pride, was the badge of inferiority, to be escaped in every possible way. It is the general complaint of the publicists of the seventeenth century that every one sought to gain a livelihood in the public service or in the Church, and no one to earn it by honest work.

I was raised as a real worker: you know, you get out and get a real job.

I come from a blue-collar family, and I'm just glad for the work.

I come from a simple background, so I couldn't call my father and say, 'Come pay my bills,' so I had to get out there and work.

There's a strong working-class work ethic in my family, which makes us strong.

I'm like, 'Wow, I guess a lot of people didn't have this type of upbringing'... that old world technique of, you know, nothing's given to you, you've gotta work for everything you've done... It's just different from what I'm seeing today.

I come from south Louisiana where everyone has a blue-collar work ethic.

Don't call me 'gentleman'. I work for a livin'.