John C. Reilly Quotes

Sarcasm is weird. Even not in acting, in life I feel like 'sarcastic' is a word that people use to describe me sometimes so when I meet someone, it's almost like they feel like they have to also be sarcastic, but it can sometimes just come off as mean if it's not used in the right way.

Cursing is highly effective in person - someone kicks his car in rage, forgetting he's wearing flip-flops, flames pour from his mouth, and it's impressive. But you see it in print, and it's just ugly.

I used to have a rant all the time when things went wrong, at everybody around me, because you just have to get the frustration out.

'24' is a pretty serious show - there isn't a lot of improv that is happening. Having said that, I do play around with the delivery. A lot of the humor comes from playing a character who is very furious and really up in her own brain and in a serious situation. That is humorous to me.

A fight can express things people might not be able to say with words.

The anger that Uncle Junior has comes from my background. My father was the son of an Italian immigrant, and I've seen the fire of the Italian temperament. It can be explosive sometimes in ways that are both funny and tragic.

Listeners instinctively detect that when we lower the usual pitch of our voice, we are sad, and when we raise it, we are angry or fearful.

Expressing anger is a form of public littering.

I'm pretty sarcastic, and sometimes that doesn't come across on the Internet. It seems like I'm being rude or stupid.

Sarcasm doesn't translate in print at all.

When my husband came to my parents' house for the first time, he asked, 'Why is everyone screaming? Why are they so angry?' I said, 'No one's angry. This is just how we communicate.'

I grew up in a family that despised displays of strong emotion, rage in particular. We stewed. We sulked. When arguments did occur, they were full-scale conniptions, and we regarded them as family failings.

I've never been particularly good at explaining or even understanding what this sort of rage is that is so accessible to me. I'm not an out-of-control person, but I can access in my work very easily a feeling of real fury. Thank goodness I've channeled it into my work, I guess.

I have a bad reputation for being temperamental.

I have a lot of aggression in me that needs to come out in a not-very-precise or articulate way.

There is - I mean - I found early in life that righteous indignation is a little off-putting, and so I try to couch it with humor.

Body language is essential for an actress, even if you don't use your body in an athletic way. Just to be free, to use it like your voice. A body can be small and have incredible violence. A body talks.

I don't even use profanity when I'm angry. I think people expected I'd have written a nice romance or something.

Watching someone getting really angry can be very funny - if it doesn't affect you, you can laugh at it, and the sillier the thing he's angry about, the funnier it is. All these emotions, we have them naturally; we're not taught them, so they can't be all wrong. We have to find some outlet for them. Comedy's my outlet for my ridiculous emotions.

I seem quiet. But when I get upset, I talk too loudly. I'm sort of an alarmist.

There's definitely an intense anger that I have inside, and I don't know where it came from. I've had it all my life. My mom was always like, 'You're going to end up in jail with that temper!'

Even in my comedies, I don't take anger as a joke. I think anger and laughter are very close to each other, when you think about it. One of the things I like about a character: I always think it's fascinating when a character can turn on a dime and go from one emotion to another. I like watching that.

I think the humor, when applied in the right amount, only serves to intensify the other emotions in a given song; it highlights them, makes them stand out.

You don't want to let the other team feed off your outward physical demeanor. But at the same time, you can't go out and play this game and not expect to just be angry and be competitive and be excited and have that fire in your belly.

It's true I have a side of me that isn't very adult. I can get very emotional about things. I can become crazy, act the clown.