I would love to have a photographic memory. It would come in handy with the rants I'm given on Scrubs... often on short notice! John C. McGinley More Quotes by John C. McGinley More Quotes From John C. McGinley I just can't afford to get bored, because if you've been blessed with a generous imagination, which a lot of actors have, to be engaged, to be stimulated, is to liberate your imagination. John C. McGinley bored imagination blessed I'm just really proud of 'Dead Head Fred.' John C. McGinley proud Groups like the NAACP, The Anti-Defamation League, NOW and GLAAD, will respond to derisive language directed at their constituents. The price paid by those who cavalierly chose to verbally disrespect the dignity of African Americans, Jews, women and homosexuals is steep. John C. McGinley disrespect african-american league With Shakespeare, if you're not going to do the iambic pentameter, do some other play. John C. McGinley ifs play You go see 'Timothy Green,' and tell me if it doesn't rock your world. I loved it. I loved every frame of it. John C. McGinley rocks green world I got my Equity card from an audition out of Backstage. We did 'Guys and Dolls' and 'Kismet.' John C. McGinley dolls guy cards I did an episode of 'Frasier' with my friend Kelsey Grammer once. John C. McGinley kelsey episodes my-friends I felt (a) it was a great role and (b) I wanted to stay in town. I wanted to stop going to these four month and five month gigs up in Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver or down in Mexico. I wanted to be around my son, Max. This came along and I was like, 'I really want to play this guy!' John C. McGinley stop down great son I knew I wanted to play 'Dr Cox' really bad, which is always a huge mistake because as soon as you want something really bad, maybe you rip up a little bit. John C. McGinley bad you want mistake On 'Platoon' I was offered in 1984 a very tiny part that Ivan Kane would go on to play. Then the financing fell out, and the film was scuttled for two years. John C. McGinley go play two years What's so interesting about 'Point Break' to me is that it's a study of testosterone and adrenaline by a woman. That's why it's little more interesting than it should be. John C. McGinley woman me study interesting I have mixed feelings about 'Car 54, Where Are You?' Because we shot it as a musical and whoever the studio head was at Orion, or whoever the powers that be were, cut all but, like, two musical numbers out of it. That is the same as cutting the musical numbers out of 'The Wizard Of Oz'; it wouldn't be that interesting. John C. McGinley you car feelings numbers I got the pilot for 'Scrubs' sent to me, and in the margin for Dr. Cox, it said 'a John McGinley type.' So when I went in to audition, I said to Billy Lawrence, who's a dear friend of mine, I said, 'Well, I'm John McGinley.' John C. McGinley pilot friend me said What helps writers, and ultimately, obviously, helps the actors - who should serve the words that the writer puts on the page - is if the character has damages, because then the writers can cultivate and excavate, like a dentist going into a tooth. John C. McGinley words like dentist character I've always thought Ed Burns was a profoundly underrated actor. He's a great director, obviously. A great director/writer. But I think he's a stunning actor, too. John C. McGinley thought great think always I have no issue with being a character actor. If you've been around enough that people are able to segregate you into that category, it means you're working. So that's good! John C. McGinley good you character people The conventional wisdom with David Mamet is, you do not change a word. And that agrees with me. If you want to change any of David's words, it's like wanting to change the iambic pentameter in Shakespeare - you should do something else. John C. McGinley me you change wisdom If you can figure out where you fit into any particular story, you'll be okay. When you're not quite sure where you fit in, you try to be too many parts of the story. You gild the lily. I see it all the time. John C. McGinley story see you time I worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange back when they used to write tickets. And I was just a runner. So a guy would write a ticket and I would run it, and it was endless. That was a hard job. And I dug tungsten... for a coal company in Wyoming one summer, and that was pretty miserable. John C. McGinley new job back hard