John Krasinski quotes:

I'm a huge classics fan. I love Ernest Hemingway and J.D. Salinger. I'm that guy who rereads a book before I read newer stuff, which is probably not all that progressive, and it's not really going to make me a better reader. I'm like, 'Oh, my God, you should read To Kill a Mockingbird.'

My favorite water cooler topic is fantasy football. I used to make fun of friends for doing it and now I'm obsessed.

Being funny is one of my greatest strengths. I can make girls smile when they're down, and when they're having a good time, I can carry on the joke.

My name was originally John Collins, but I just didn't think it had the flair I needed. I found out the poet laureate of Poland was named Krasinski and so it seemed like a shoe-in for show business.

The first acting thing I ever did was my senior year I decided not to play a sport in the Spring and, in that Spring B.J. Novak who went to school with me, asked if I'd be in this show that was a parody of all the teachers in the school, 'sure!' That was the first acting thing I did.

Boston is actually the capital of the world. You didn't know that? We breed smart-ass, quippy, funny people. Not that I'm one of them. I just sorta sneaked in under the radar.

I think one of the coolest things about the job is the level of trust we have for each other. The actors fully trust that the writers will write amazing episodes, and the writers trust that the actors will follow their instincts with the characters.

The perfect gadget would somehow allow me to fly. Isn't that what everybody wants? It would also cook a damn good microwave pizza. So while in flight you had something to eat - an in-flight meal. Where would I go? Well, nowadays, it would probably just take me to work a lot quicker.

Guys have a level of insecurity and vulnerability that's exponentially bigger than you think. With the primal urge to be alpha comes extreme heartbreak. The harder we fight, the harder we fall.

I'm a huge classics fan. I love Ernest Hemingway and J.D. Salinger. I'm that guy who rereads a book before I read newer stuff, which is probably not all that progressive, and it's not really going to make me a better reader. I'm like, 'Oh, my God, you should read To Kill a Mockingbird.

I wanted to be an English teacher. I wanted to do it for the corduroy jackets with patches on the side. When I got to college, as I was walking across campus one day, I ripped off a little flyer for this sketch-comedy group. It ended up being one of the greatest things I've ever done.

I fell in love with the book [ Brief Interviews with Hideous Men] and always wanted to do something with and fought to get the rights, which was pretty fun and an incredible experience in itself.

Trophies and medals have never meant much to me. I've had amazing experiences, which let you feel like you've accomplished something.

You can't do anything to be funny. That's cringeworthy. If your humor comes out of a place of love every time, you don't make the joke bigger than you. The funniest comedians are in touch with their emotional level.

Always trying new things is always more fun, and it can be scary, but it's always more fun in the end.

I used to make fun of my friends who had BlackBerries. And I know that the expression CrackBerry has been going around, but now I fully understand it. I'm actually addicted to a piece of machinery, and that's really embarrassing

I've never been compared to Bugs Bunny and that's amazing, thank you.

Most of the people I know who work out seriously do so because they have such an amazing outlook on life. To be who I want to be, I'm going to work out to be more positive, more active. It's proactive.

I know I'm guilty of and I think a lot of people are guilty of sort of getting starry-eyed with love and sort of looking over the bad things and keep going and you don't really prepare for how much work marriage really is.

Each cast member brings their own vibe and antics to the set. You're constantly surrounded by fun loving people who can make you laugh in their own way

Being [in] a show that you get to say good-bye instead of being asked to leave is a real honor.

It's not about celebrity or not. It's all about, do you have that 'girl in a cardigan' in you. You gotta have that.

I usually save these answers [on the institution of marriage] for my Barbara Walters Special, but she didn't call so I've never been engaged, despite popular belief.

There's the push and pull you put on yourself and the push and pull the world puts on you. Most of the time, the world's going to win out, because it's just logical that you should be more successful and more motivated. You can always be more.

Each cast member brings their own vibe and antics to the set. You're constantly surrounded by fun loving people who can make you laugh in their own way.

We actually try our best to be non-biased, but for me, that was the best movie ["Sicario"], filmmaking-wise and storytelling-wise, and connected to me the most. I thought it was great.

I have people printing that I have. Never been engaged. As far as what I think of marriage, I think it's great. I think I'd like to be married some day, but I'll start with love.

Working with Robin Williams, what can you say? He's the best of the best. What I really liked watching was, not only is he incredible funny, probably the funniest person on Earth which is a tough award to give out, but to see what it really takes to be a huge star is way beyond a good partner being extremely funny.

It's a big thing to feel like you're doing something that's actually affecting people.

I didn't go to the special screening on a spaceship where everybody goes to have their special screeningsEverybody knows that's what happens in Hollywood.

I think we owe absolutely everything to the fans.

Truly, when I say the show has given me everything, it's given me everything.

I think one of the coolest things about the job is the level of trust we have for each other. The actors fully trust that the writers will write amazing episodes, and the writers trust that the actors will follow their instincts with the characters

I'm really not feeling one way or the other with comedy or drama, I'm just sort of doing projects that I've been finding really fun to be a part of

The funniest comedians are in touch with their emotional level.

Writing and directing just sort of fell into my lap.

We were looking to collaborate with someone on both those fronts [ writing and directing] and it ended up just being me [in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men]. So, at this point, it's the epitome of a passion project and I just hope people like it.

That was okay [ working with George Clooney]. One of these days I'll work with a good director.

You can make jokes but [ George Clooney] is everything that anyone's ever said about him.

[The Office] is incredible. It's slightly overwhelming because you don't think that anything you do....having anybody enjoy what you do is such a treat and so I know I've said this a hundred times but we owe it all to our writers.

My favorite scene on the show [The Office] is on the booze cruise when I finally get to talk to her and tell her, and I react exactly how I would react by saying nothing.

I certainly went into losing my virginity terrified. Going on stage, I could only have imagined the worst possible outcomes. And then it went fine.

One of the best lessons I've ever gotten in my life is to anticipate nothing because it's always worse in your head than it really is.

I love to have the people watching [The Office ] just because it's fun to have people watching, but our fans are so dedicated, so smart and so cool for the most part. We don't have these fans that overwhelm you if they see you on the street. They're like, 'Love the show', or 'What an idiot. You should have said something to her last week.' I'm like, 'I know.'

Keeping it real is the key and I don't know how they've done that week after week. I think the key is that everybody can sort of empathize with [The Office].

I have no problem with people seeing me as the nice guy. I hope they don't see me as just the nice guy.

I grew up with the Boston vibe and the Catholic vibe. I don't want to put anybody out.

James Cagney as a baby is not my ideal thing.

You should know the ins and outs [of the marriage]. So it was nice to see a little bit of background.

After three takes, [George Clooney] is like, 'We got it,' and I'm still thinking, 'I'm just getting used to this. I shouldn't have done it in a Russian accent.' No, he's great. He's a good guy.

When I look at my parents I'm like, 'This is easy. Staying together for 35 years? How hard is that?' They're like, 'Very hard.

Why don't we try falling in love first and then I'll see what happens after that?

I hadn't heard the Gary Cooper thing so I'm not grounded now. I feel pretty good. That's incredibly nice. When I met Robin [Williams] at the read-through, I remember when he came in, I was so nervous meeting him for the first time is incredible because I did actually write him a letter when I was a kid and told him he was my favorite actor.

The first time I ever cried in a movie was in Dead Poet's Society.

As far as Ken Kwapis saying all those things, I think he just really wanted me in the movie so he probably told Warner Brothers, 'Don't worry, Jimmy Stewart? Gary Cooper? Who else do you like?' If they'd said they were huge Chris Farley fans, he's like, 'He can do that, too. He's a huge physical comedian.' But no, that's really nice to hear.

My family's the best so to call and say, 'I'm in a movie with Robin Williams,' and they're like, 'That's ridiculous.' And I'm like, 'Good, as long as you think that, too.' Because as soon as you say, 'I deserve this,' it's over."

I am in that everything [ David Foster Wallace] writes is pretty much the best stuff I've read, so that makes me a fan I guess.

I was extremely lucky to get this project [Brief Interviews with Hideous Men]. It was one of those things that I worked on in college. A friend of mine asked me to do a stage reading of that book and I was just completely blown away because, at that point, I was like, 'Acting's having fun with your friends and making people laugh.'

We have the best writers in the business [on The Office].

To be that big of a star and that grounded and that classy, I'm mean [ George Clooney] was a true mentor for me and, as a director, he's incredible.

[George Clooney] knows exactly what he wants and so he knows that you've done a good job before you do.

I'm not going to pretend that bad things don't happen. I just hope my daughter has enough understanding that when they do, just give me a call.

I'm a sap, I'll cry at anything. But I don't cry when I feel manipulated, or when there's a music cue telling me to.

I don't want my kids to ever think that I am choosing my job over them.

I forget who said it, but someone said, your job as an actor is to communicate the most honest version of this character, and so the parts of you that you can use are obviously the easiest to access, because you live through them every day.

I think it's a big chance to take to make a movie that's about as something as pure and honest and something people can relate to everyday.

All the cliches are true about parenting. All I've ever wanted to do is be a father, but there's this existential mirror that's held up when you have a kid.

I related so much to the responsibility of being a parent, the responsibility of "did you screw your kid up," the responsibility of letting your own parents down.

Now all of us in our thirties are the first generation that get to say, "I don't know how I feel about that system, I don't know if I want kids, I don't know if I want to get married."

We live in a very modern age and the dynamic of raising kids and being a professional are intersecting a lot more - especially for women.

I think one of the coolest things for my daughters is that they'll get to see their mom being a working mom. It's one of the things I'll be most proud of.

I'm not gonna be one of those actors who's like, "It's such a drag to not see your kids." Of course it is, but that's the compromise that you're making.

Family comes first for me in every single way.

I'm sure there's pieces of me in all the characters I play.

Let's be honest, there are a lot of family movies; I like some of them, I don't like other ones.

There's not swelling music and emotional scenes in life, and there's not long pauses when you tell a joke for everybody to laugh. That's not how it goes. Life just sort of happens to you.

For me, anything I do is totally up for conversation and it's not my right to be able to stop a person from writing whatever they want. What's harmful and hurtful is when people speculate.

I have the most incredible parents and they didn't put pressure on me. I grew up in a house and no matter what they thought of things, it was always about my choice.

I've always loved where my dad came from and the ideals that instilled in me.

A lot of times in movies, you see the "small town" people, being bowled over by this creative entity or this corporate ideal, and it's not true, at all.

People have a sense of humor, even if it's not a good one, and everybody has stakes.

To me, television is one of the most exciting things going on right now, as far as content goes. Some of these shows that are on television are better than any of the movies out there.

I'm a sucker where I love shifting tides.

When everything gets turned upside down, it only leads to better quality stuff.

I love this script [The Hollars] because I'm lucky enough to come from a really tightknit family.

It's a great wake-up call for our entire industry: What movies are we making? What storytellers are we allowing to tell the stories? What people are we allowing to be cast in those stories? I think we need newer stories, and more people given the opportunity to do anything they want.

The one-liner of this movie [ The Hollars], you've probably heard before: 'A guy goes home to his family and finds out about himself.

Richard Jenkins read the script [The Hollars] and really liked it, but he said, 'If you can get Margo Martindale, I'll do it. Otherwise, good luck.

I've always loved those movies where somebody thinks they want something, and then they realize that the thing they really want is right in front of them.

If you did go to high school and then college, there's definitely a solidarity with someone that is from your hometown and knows your mom, and all that stuff. There's this weird politeness that we have, as a society. You don't want to make it hard for anybody.

In a lot of relationships, when you're an adult, you realize that you've actually just been repeating a pattern. When someone breaks that pattern and it makes you realize what's right or wrong about the person. When you actually have to confront it, that's probably why a lot of adult relationships don't survive.

It's definitely particular to each situation, but whether it is a long history, or someone that you're intimidated by, or someone that you didn't think you ever had a shot at, at the end of the day, I think we're all living through high school, every day.

I think there's a part of us that would like to use the fact that we're married, but you don't want the idea that we're married to overshadow the project itself.We're just looking for something that's so specific and good that it becomes a part of the story of why we did it rather than when we go to do press it's, 'Oh, my God, you're married and that's the only thing we want to talk about.' If we can merge both, that could be great.

Acting is always more fun for me.I love being a part of a story, I love collaborating, I love working with different directors. If I just directed more and more, it would lessen the opportunity to work with all these big directors that I've had the opportunity to work with.

The only reason why I acted in school was because of the community, like I was in the chorus of every play, I was never really the lead.