Top 60 John Leguizamo Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I like helping people achieve their dreams just like people helped me.”

— John Leguizamo

2. “It takes time to understand yourself, to go inside yourself and to question yourself and really take yourself to task. That’s self-expression.”

— John Leguizamo

3. “With kids, the days are long, but the years are short.”

— John Leguizamo

4. “Latins for Republicans – it’s like roaches for Raid.”

— John Leguizamo

5. “I love life, man, and I embrace every minute of it so maybe I bring that on the set. I love people and I want to have a good time.”

— John Leguizamo

6. “I was working at Kentucky Fried Chicken when my math teacher said, “You’re failing in school, you’re messing up, why don’t you just try this?” I said, “Alright, let me try it,” and I started going to acting classes and I loved it. I thought, “I may not make it but I love doing it.””

— John Leguizamo

7. “Some kids are fine, but often I don’t like what I see in child actors. My kids are young and they are already showing an interest, so I have to try to discourage them, squash that in them.”

— John Leguizamo

8. “I was just school class clown and that was it. Someday I’ll get a job as a cab driver or whatever.”

— John Leguizamo

9. “Well, I don’t know why people insist on knowing themselves. It’s hard enough to know what to wear.”

— John Leguizamo

10. “You grow up Latin in this country and you’re a third class citizen from the word go, and so you have to deal with everything around you from that point of view and trying to feel entitled.”

— John Leguizamo

11. “When you feel the world is against you or you give up hope, you look at your heroes and say, “They were able to do it. They had hard times and a lot of opposition, but they got through it.” Then you feel, “I can do it too.””

— John Leguizamo

12. “In Moulin Rouge I could not change the name of Toulouse-Lautrec obviously to Toulouse-Lautrec- Martinez. But in ER I did that, my name is Dr Victor Clemente, so sometimes it is possible.”

— John Leguizamo

13. “Sid is a prehistoric sloth. Sloths move really slowly and they store food in the cheek pouches. That’s where I got the voice that you hear. He had to sound as though he was storing food.”

— John Leguizamo

14. “I knew Linda Cardellini from when we did ER together – she was always great, such a cool spirit.”

— John Leguizamo

15. “There were no Latin people on ‘Star Trek,’ that this was proof that they weren’t planning to have us around for the future.”

— John Leguizamo

16. “After kids leave the house, they can decide to do whatever they want, but while they’re under my roof, they’re going to be lawyers or writers or something, something important, anything except actors.”

— John Leguizamo

17. “Great acting is being able to create a character. Great character is being able to be yourself.”

— John Leguizamo

18. “We are taking our culture and suturing it to America. Like gum on the bottom of a shoe, we are not going to disappear. Unlike other peoples who totally assimilated, we are more interested in co-assimilation.”

— John Leguizamo

19. “So many people, my friends and family, were all saying, “You’re so funny. Why don’t you become a comedian or an actor?” But it wasn’t a reality at the time, it wasn’t a road that Latin people were accepted in.”

— John Leguizamo

20. “I wasn’t even in a theater because I guess nobody believed in me, so I was in the hallway of a theater on a platform that they would move so the main stage show could go on at eight o’clock and I’d be gone.”

— John Leguizamo

21. “You have the hilarity and the great production. These films are distinctive because they are not just topical, they tell good stories and they let scenes play out physically. Apart from the dialogue, the characters also have a non-verbal existence, for example with Scrat.”

— John Leguizamo

22. “To be a comedian, you gotta jokesmith, there’s no way around it.”

— John Leguizamo

23. “I have a lot of heroes. I don’t think people give enough of a tribute to their mentors. They try to act like they’re spontaneous generations – they are faking liars.”

— John Leguizamo

24. “I think as you mature as an actor things open up to you in a lot of ways, especially if you do work on yourself.”

— John Leguizamo

25. “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.”

— John Leguizamo

26. “America may not realize it yet, but Latin prototypes are being created right now, and not just by me. They are these mambo kings and salsa queens, Aztec lords and Inca princesses, every Hernandez and Fernandez, whom this country will one day come to understand and respect.”

— John Leguizamo

27. “I love cartoons. So when they came to me to make Ice Age and this sequel, I was so happy.”

— John Leguizamo

28. “The beautiful thing about acting is that you can go your whole life if you stay current and you stay fresh.”

— John Leguizamo

29. “It’s been great, I have to dig deep for really raw emotions and at the same time I have to use my intellect to say the ridiculous medical jargon while acting and treating a patient and then I have to try to have a personality and emotions as well. So it is definitely hard work.”

— John Leguizamo

30. “Don’t confuse the beginning of my world with the breakup of yours.”

— John Leguizamo

31. “I love life, and I embrace every minute of it.”

— John Leguizamo

32. “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.”

— John Leguizamo

33. “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.”

— John Leguizamo

34. “I did the bible as told through Hispanic people and they laughed and applauded. I thought, “Oh my god, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.””

— John Leguizamo

35. “I love theater. I think theater, when its done right, is the best, like a religious experience. When it is done badly, it’s the worst thing. It’s just an incredible experience.”

— John Leguizamo

36. “Self-expression, to me, is something that you worked on, that you have mastered a skill to say something in the most artful way that you can. It’s not just blurting stuff out and having verbal diarrhea.”

— John Leguizamo

37. “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.”

— John Leguizamo

38. “I don’t think it’s my responsibility, but I definitely try to create my own projects that are Latin-based with a Latin crew and Latin cast. I try to give all my characters Latin names whenever I can and make sure that they are of Latin heritage. But that does not work with every project.”

— John Leguizamo

39. “I’m not really against a lot of things unless they are just pure exploitation and then they create their own copycat culture that comes from someone acting irresponsibly. That’s dangerous when that happens.”

— John Leguizamo

40. “People can be anonymous when they go on blogs and say crazy things that they would never have the courage to say to your face.”

— John Leguizamo

41. “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.”

— John Leguizamo

42. “Most of the great directors I’ve worked with – De Palma, Spike Lee – like rehearsals.”

— John Leguizamo

43. “I keep my kids out of the whole business entirely. Allegra and Lucas are five and six and I’m not interested in them doing any acting at all. I don’t want my kids in show business. I keep them as far away from my work as possible.”

— John Leguizamo

44. “You know, I am kind of a bi-polarish schitzerphrenic. I run the gamut of being incredibly shy and withdrawn to being a crazy-eccentric exhibitionist. And I have always been like that.”

— John Leguizamo

45. “Is there a God? Yeah, but there’s not just one God. There’s a whole lot of gods, because one God couldn’t have possibly made so many mistakes all by Himself. This had to be done by committee.”

— John Leguizamo

46. “I wanted to enjoy the process. I wanted to enjoy just being on stage and giving back and the feedback.”

— John Leguizamo

47. “Rehearsals make a huge difference.”

— John Leguizamo

48. “Definitely if you’re an athlete, you’re gonna be having all the baseball fame you can have. That’s the great thing about baseball and sports. You can measure ability.”

— John Leguizamo

49. “I would be jokesmithing. I had files with tons of disses that I would try to write as I was on the train going to school.”

— John Leguizamo

50. “I walked around my apartment with food in my mouth asking myself: “How do I come up with this voice?” Then I found the voice. I called the director and said on the phone: “Guess who you’re talking to Chris? Sid, that’s right Sid!” And that’s how I came up with the voice. That’s a true story.”

— John Leguizamo