Top 120 Quotes & Sayings by John Cho - Page 2

I like that guy Matthew Perry a lot.

Even though there's a lot of horror from Asia in the American cinematic tradition, I hadn't seen Asians at the center of it.

When you're not born in this country, you kind of study how people talk and how they act, and you try and break things down.

I get called Harold the most. I think maybe 'Harold & Kumar' fans don't know my name, and 'Star Trek' fans do know my name... Harold fans are vocal!

I don't feel comfortable as an insider.

What's impressed me about 'Star Trek' fans is how many generations they span and how many nations they represent. They are all over the place.

I had a stereotype in my mind of what a 'Star Trek' fans is, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

One of the things I like about comedy in general is that it affords Asian Americans the opportunity to not be noble.

I campaigned for Obama, and that was such a big component of getting the vote out, was social media.

I got sort of sick of seeing Asians being the blank, bland real estate agent or something. I didn't care. It didn't mean anything to me.

Because I sidestepped all the stereotypical roles, in a way I've made a career out of not being Asian - a lot of my roles weren't written as Asian - so there's an impulse in me that wants to take a U-turn and play a very grounded, real Asian character, maybe an immigrant.

As long as the rent's getting paid, you don't think about getting out of the game.

I need my comedy to offend. That's my personal views.

The Asian-American kids I meet respond to a democracy in the vulgarity of my roles.

I don't know if I trust entertainment to teach anyone anything.

I don't like when an Asian-American actor says, 'I'm entering this business to change Hollywood.' It feels like the wrong reason - I would prefer they entered the business for artistic reasons, because they need to do it.

My wife and I were worried, when we had our firstborn, about how he was going to think of himself in a mostly white neighborhood. Particularly Asian men, I feel, we suffer more than Asian women, because we're told we're not worth anything in general.

I've had an unusual career in that I've never had a big break, but the rent always seemed to get paid.

Movies may be as close to a document of our national culture as there is; they're supposed to represent what we believe ourselves to be. So when you don't see yourself at all - or see yourself erased - that hurts.

I'm not a good improv-er, which is what a lot of comedic actors are really good at. I have failed miserably when I've been asked to improvise.

I think obviously the 'Harold and Kumar' stuff is trying to lean head first into the raunch.

I think about John Lennon all the time. What would John Lennon do? What would John Lennon say if he got this part? How would he act? I don't know, but he's my moral barometer.

I've found that one's language abilities, especially for Korean kids like me, get frozen at the age you immigrated. So I've always associated Korea with being a child and being infantilized through my inability to speak.

Culture is this thing that exists apart from our real life but is something we all have tacitly agreed to in America. And what film and television do, particularly in this country, is lay out the characters involved in this invisible agreement and dictate who and what can participate.

I feel like there's this need that the Asian-American community has to feel like people. It's something that Asians in Asia do not understand about us.

That's a huge part of being a human being: looking for love and finding a partner in this world. When you constantly play characters who don't have that life, it feels incomplete and not totally human.

There was a while where every role I was getting offered was extremely noble - like the judge or the kindly nurse.

I write, and I sing, and I play a little guitar. I mean, it's tiny. Ba-dump-bum!

I accept what people say. I don't have time to dissect it.

When you get something off the ground, it's fantastic, and you feel really close to that group of people.

I wanted to do 'Manzanar' because I'd never done anything like it before. The spoken word there is between a drama and an essay, and I'd never worked in concert with an orchestra.

Sometimes I feel indie directors are in the game so they can make a film to get hired to do a big film - that we're all doing this person's reel.

Asians narratively in shows are insignificant. They're the cop or the waitress or whatever it is. You see them in the background.

To be able to communicate with people on the other side of the globe is interesting, in an instant.

Typically, actors overplay jargon or toss it away in an extravagant display of casualness. Real people hit the important parts hard.

I think the ability to emphasize is, in large part, what makes me a man and not a boy.

Ninety per cent of being a parent is just being present and available.

I like to flip flop, but making your days work to find a laugh is a really good way to spend a day. I appreciate it more going away and then coming back to it.

It just seemed hedonistic when I first started acting. It was a pleasurable thing. But as I look back on it now, I understand that it was a journey of the self for me.

I think Hollywood acts like followers of culture and is constantly seeking to follow trends.

That's what it is: a 'Harold & Kumar' movie is a romance between two best friends.

I have an affinity for comedy because I like to watch them. It's an honor to make comedies because I love being able to pop something into the DVD player and laugh. I love doing it.

I've been called a funny person for a long time. I don't know that I know anything about comedic acting.

What was exciting to me in talking to Kogonada was I was just very convinced that he was a very real and pure artist. He was so uninterested in the commercial game.

The worst thing for a kid is to move around and switch schools, but as an actor, you go from job to job, meeting strangers and becoming very close right away. I've become adept at that.

You don't really see Asian men together very often. It's very rare in life.

Lost' was a phenomenon, like Elvis.

Sometimes just being an immigrant, I read things the wrong way, and that can be funny. Or I'll put the emphasis on the wrong word, and that can be funny. I have an affinity for comedy because I like to watch them. It's an honor to make comedies because I love being able to pop something into the DVD player and laugh. I love doing it.

I try to be personal, but that's not me, either. What seems to work best, and the tweets I enjoy reading the most, are when comedians just give jokes. It's a great joke of the day thing, especially revolving around current events. But that's not my forte either, so I find myself in no man's land with Twitter. I don't particularly enjoy giving me out to everyone.

You know, I did start a Twitter account, but that's the only thing I do. I feel torn because I don't want to promo myself and force that down people's throats, but on the other hand, that's a component. There's some real interest in, "Hey, what are you doing next?"

It's really weird to be in more than one franchise because an actor's life is so nomadic, and so it's a real privilege to get back together with people.

The show definitely has a romantic construct, and that's a genre that I've never had access to, in a significant way. This interesting for me to see, as an Asian guy, just standing back. I just wanted to break my way into a different genre. I was tickled that it was offered to me.

I think there are contractual problems with me doing more than a couple, but I would love to go back. I just have a lot of fondness for that show, and for the people. When you get something off the ground, it's fantastic and you feel really close to that group of people. Wherever Selfie goes, the fact that we birthed it, we'll always be tied together that way.

I try to play the stiff, as much as I can, and play it dry, which is sometimes hard for me. My problem with comedy is to want to clown it up, but she's the funny one. Those are her jokes, not mine. For me, it's a lot of not doing anything. I just don't want to muck it up.

Conversely, the most powerful thing an actor can say is "no." If something is presented and it's a stereotypical role or something, you can say no to that, and that's very powerful.

I'm trying to think of - knock on wood - how young people would feel today if our president and our leaders were shot at. But... our young people are being killed at an astonishing rate, and times seem dark.

Asian American men, Asian men have been basically eunuchs in American cinema and television.

Sometimes you just get giggles leprosy and it can't be helped. I find that there's a direct correlation between fatigue and breaking.

The objective is not just to save the crew or just to get the ship up, but the superobjective is to get back home to the family and protect the family.

I've been called a funny person, for a long time. I don't know that I know anything about comedic acting. I'm not a good improver, which is what a lot of comedic actors are really good at. I have failed miserably when I've been asked to improvise.