Top 42 Quotes & Sayings by John Turturro

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor John Turturro.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

John Michael Turturro is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his contributions to the independent film movement. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler, and Spike Lee. He began his acting career on-screen in the early 1980s, and received early critical recognition with the independent film Five Corners (1987). Turturro's mainstream breakthrough came with Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) and the Coens' Miller's Crossing (1990) and Barton Fink (1991), for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. His subsequent roles included Herb Stempel in Quiz Show (1994), Jesus Quintana in both The Big Lebowski (1998) and The Jesus Rolls (2020), Pete in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Seymour Simmons in the Transformers film series and Carmine Falcone in The Batman. In 2016, in a lead role, he portrayed a lawyer in the HBO miniseries The Night Of. He had a recurring role in the miniseries The Plot Against America in 2020. He currently stars as Irving on the Apple TV+ series Severance.

American - Actor | Born: February 28, 1957

Source: Wikipedia

It's great to watch someone get the most out of what they can do, whether they're a beautiful performer or just a really gritty performer. It's something to behold.

John Turturro

If a film doesn't play, people aren't going to be that nice.

John Turturro

If I was a criminal, stationery stores and bakeries would be the two kinds of places I would concentrate on.

John Turturro

I play chess badly and I've been beaten by my 10-year old son.

John Turturro

When the day's work is over, it's over.

John Turturro

When I see these guys write all this macho stuff I want to smash their heads.

John Turturro

Al Michaels is a good announcer. I think Keith Jackson is a terrific announcer. I always loved him on Monday Night Football. I never understood why they got rid of him.

John Turturro

I think I've had more of a variety in what I've done than most actors.

John Turturro

I think you learn more from looking at how things occurred and what happened afterward, not just at the event.

John Turturro

The past has to inform the present.

John Turturro

Levi is one of the best authors I've ever read. It's hard not to have an immediate personal response to his work. He has such a quiet tone.

John Turturro

You think of stars as ambitious or aggressive or self-oriented.

John Turturro

When you sit down and watch something alone, you're going to watch it for what it is.

John Turturro

The romance stuff is easy. A sex scene... that's hard, because you don't know what to do. Those scenes are awkward.

John Turturro

I make a list of what I have in common, and what I don't have in common, with someone I'm playing.

John Turturro

A lot of films need planning in order to survive at all. It's part of the dog and pony show.

John Turturro

My interest lies in my self-expression - what's inside of me - not what I'm in.

John Turturro

I've done nudity. I'm an exhibitionist. It doesn't matter.

John Turturro

In my first film, Five Corners, I played a very scary, violent crazed character, and it exposed me to a lot of directors.

John Turturro

Games sometimes can reveal things. To watch someone in movement, unconscious movement, can be very stimulating and revealing, whether they win or not.

John Turturro

I love to act, and I try to be challenged by what I do.

John Turturro

One thing I have is that I have never been afraid to expose myself in a way, and I really think I got that from my mother. That's a great gift you can give to a child, that they have confidence in their abilities.

John Turturro

I love to act, and I try to be challenged by what I do

John Turturro

I play chess badly and I've been beaten by my 10-year old son

John Turturro

I've always liked clothes. I usually work very closely with the costume designer when I work on films, picking the fabrics and the clothes. And colors convey feelings. I like swatches and things like that. It makes me feel at home.

John Turturro

When you're directing, it is a little easier, because when you're the actor, you have a to be a little more of a child. You have to get into the child's aspect of your personality a little bit more.

John Turturro

Al Michaels is a good announcer. I think Keith Jackson is a terrific announcer. I always loved him on Monday Night Football. I never understood why they got rid of him

John Turturro

I come from a very expressive family, so it's really not surprising that we became actors. There was a lot of real-life drama in our house. Some of it was drama, some of it was comedy and some of it was comic-tragedy.

John Turturro

I think you learn more from looking at how things occurred and what happened afterward, not just at the event

John Turturro

My interest lies in my self-expression -- what's inside of me -- not what I'm in.

John Turturro

The past has to inform the present...

John Turturro

A lot of those people aren't their best salesmen. They're the opposite of a salesperson and I think there's something attractive about that.

John Turturro

The nice thing about Toronto is there's not a competition.

John Turturro

A lot of films need planning in order to survive at all. It's part of the dog and pony show

John Turturro

In a lot of movies, honestly, the directors don't talk to you that much. Maybe they say, "Faster, slower," whatever. Sometimes they give you little adjustments, because sometimes you want to start out neutral, but a lot of times you wind up directing yourself anyway, just doing what you think is the right thing to do.

John Turturro

People are never too young or too old to look for human connection.

John Turturro

Games sometimes can reveal things. To watch someone in movement, unconscious movement, can be very stimulating and revealing, whether they win or not

John Turturro

I make a list of what I have in common, and what I don't have in common, with someone I'm playing

John Turturro

Even people within a relationship can be really alone, and then have to go outside of it in order to find something, whatever it is. It may be very bizarre and maybe something very tender.

John Turturro