John Barrowman Quotes

You have to do bad things in order to become a hero. You have to make sacrifices.

What I can say that's different in American television… in Britain, they wouldn't cancel something after a couple of episodes. In the States they would. They would just decide it's not working, take it off and put something else in on the fall schedule.

For some reason I seem to be a massive hit with middle-aged women. I seriously don't know what it is.

I live my life openly and freely every day anyway, and do what I want to do, but I don't take any great risks.

I’m an openly gay man playing an omnisexual hero, who is loved on both sides of the Atlantic. How could I not be proud of that?

I would wish that people would accept people for who they are, not be judgemental, allow people to live their lives and enjoy themselves and that would be my wish for people.

I don't call myself an actor, I call myself an entertainer, because I don't just do one thing.

There's a lot of me in Captain Jack and there's a lot of Captain Jack in me. And there is no pun intended.

It wasn't until I got involved in Doctor Who that I started doing dramas on television.

I've always thought people would find a lot more pleasure in their routines if they burst into song at significant moments.

You can be in the public eye all the time and still have a private life, but the important thing is to keep in touch with the people who put you there.

I'm not one of those actors who likes to analyze things too much, so I trust what the writers are doing with the characters, in order to give them their journey. My job is to come in and try to make those words on the page come alive on camera.

I'm one who will always speak my mind and say what I feel!

I was the one who taught my sister and my niece how to walk in high heels.

As an actor, I only play what is in the moment, rather than in the future, but sometimes the past is more important than what is coming up in the future.

I find with television, you have to play personality, whereas onstage, everyone talks about "the character," and what you do. It's a very different thing, because stage is much bigger, but on television, for things to come across to the public, I think you have to play a bit of your personality.

When I go to Florida for Christmas I always take my nieces and nephews out on excursions, ... I become like a big kid again. We go on all the big rides at the theme parks or I stick them in go-karts where their feet can't quite reach the pedals. I think that if you can continue to have the child at heart you may grow old physically but you will stay young mentally.

I do tend to eat healthily most of the time, but I don't restrict myself. I believe in eating anything and everything in moderation and doing some exercise.

Whenever I'm in Glasgow I go and stand outside the front of the house I grew up in, which is in Mount Vernon.

The one thing that makes 'Torchwood' work so brilliantly and makes it a little bit above the rest of all other sci-fi dramas out there is that we have a sense of humour.

I am not one of those actors who dwells on the histrionics and the subtext and future text of the character. I deal with the scenes that I'm doing at that specific time, because if I do that, they play in more of a real way.

Some people are gay. Get over it!

I've always said in my career and in my life I only do things I'm interested in.

If you do something and it goes wrong, you learn from it and you move on.

I'm lively when I perform and I always put everything into a show, but when I get home I love lying down in front of the TV and relaxing.

I trust the [series] writers when I'm filming, because it's interesting for me to go in every week and see what's going to happen, and the challenge for me as the actor is to make it work.

I'm really passionate about pantomime because it is often the first introduction for a child to theatre, and if that child has a great experience at a pantomime they will continue to come year after year.

I would love to lecture to women on men. I'd tell them everything about men: gay, straight, bi, how we're all the same, how we're all bastards.

My first professional job was actually at a place called Opryland USA, which no longer exists, but I've been performing since I was a kid.

I don't think nudity is a bad thing, I don't think people should be embarrassed about their bodies, and I don't mind whipping it out.

Many things shaped my identity as a young boy: a strong selfworth (something that was instilled in all three Barrowman siblings by our parents), my immersion in theatre and music, and my DNA. I was born gay. It's not a choice I – or anyone else who is gay – made. If it were, why on earth would anyone choose to be part of a minority, part of a group that in so many cultures and countries, even in the twenty-first century, is regularly blasphemed, hounded and worse?

Honestly, the world can be a dark enough place. Light it up.

You know, every year 'Torchwood' has become something a little different than it was before. It's still sci-fi, but it doesn't just deal with spaceships and aliens all the time, because we've done that. Our science fiction is more psychological.

I have a real passion for driving. Earlier on in my life I wanted to be a race car driver. But I don't pay an extortionate amount of money for cars. I'm pretty frugal.

Never apologize for being nerdy.

In everything I do, I find some of myself, or a lot of myself, and put it into the role.

I think my biggest appeal for fans is probably the fact that I'm honest. I'm up front about who I am. I'm a little naughty. I have a naughty side and everybody knows that. But I know when to use that and when not to.

I don't feel sorry for myself, because I'm living my dream. Even when I was a little boy I used to stand in the playground and pretend I was on 'Opportunity Knocks.'

Have I ever been the shy retiring type? Never. Not since the day I was born.

Love is love, no matter who you fall in love with, love is love, it can be painful, it can be wonderful.

My humour and my work ethic definitely come from my Scottish side, and I have to say the sense of humour doesn't really translate when I'm in America.

I did archery when I was in high school. In our gym class we had two weeks of archery and I remember taking the bow and arrow and firing it up and across the street into a car parking lot.

When I was a kid growing up in the States in the late '70s and early '80s, as soon as 'Dallas' came on on a Friday night on CBS at 9 P.M., we stopped everything from that moment on as a family.

We get the scripts before the table read, but I don't look at them until we go into the table read. I don't want to know, when I'm playing a moment in the current episode, what's going to happen because it might change how I'm playing that.

Never apologize for being nerdy, because un-nerdy people never apologize for being assholes.

If you put a label on yourself, people will pigeonhole you.

When I was younger I wanted to be an airline pilot, but that lasted for about 30 seconds.

Desperate Housewives' was a good experience, though, as I got to play the bad guy for once. My only complaint was they had me in a lot of sweaters.