Jonathan Banks Quotations

When I walk onto a set, no matter what it is, I always do the very best work that I can. But I'm not braindead, and I want to do things that I want to do, you know?

I grew up in Washington, D.C. Suffice to say, it was not a garden spot.

Forty-five years since I made my first paycheck, and I'm telling you that 'Breaking Bad' is as good as it gets.

'Wiseguy' for its time was good. It was really good. And it holds up still. But a lot of the restraints have been taken off now.

Boy I could do this forever; I truly enjoy bad guys.

I've got eighteen-year-old twins that need to go to college, so there's still a financial issue, but I could retire tomorrow and just count ducks by the side of the lake, and that would be just fine by me. I'm not a high-energy guy.

I have no trouble walking around. But every once in a while, somebody will come, during the course of the day, and say, 'Oh, I recognize you from such-and-such,' and yeah, they'll make a connection. I think for the most part, people don't go, 'Where do I know him from? Does he work at the bank?'

I grew up in Chillum Heights in the Washington, D.C. area., and it was never a garden spot. When guys go, 'Hey, when I grew up, my neighborhood was tough, and it was this and that'... the reality is that it was just a terribly sad place. And thank God, I was able to escape it.

I love Russell Crowe's line to Oliver Reed in 'Gladiator' where he asks him, 'Are you in danger of becoming a good man?' It's one of my favorite lines ever.

I honestly do feel - and I hope I don't gag anybody if they read this - but I feel like I'm one of the luckiest people in the world.

The funniest guy I've ever worked with - it's just one of those things, again, where we look at each other and just laugh - is Jimmy Byrnes from 'Wiseguy.' Jimmy - we can't be in the same room together. He knows he can make me laugh just by looking at me.

I do like when you find a true personal relationship with any of the characters, you like to make that honest connection. And every once in a while, there's that glimmer where you got that line in where something happens, where you get to really talk.

I've died so many times. I'm 65. On my 40th birthday, my girlfriend gave me a reel with ways I had died, whether it was by knife, or electrocution or drowning or being thrown off a building or whatever it might have been. I've died a lot of times!

Wiseguy for its time was good. It was really good. And it holds up still. But a lot of the restraints have been taken off now.

Comedy is not my world. It's difficult for me, but sometimes you just have to go with it and have a good time.

Thank God for theater and film and television and my very, very, very lucky life.

If you had told me in the Seventies and Eighties that TV would be as edgy or edgier than most films, and more intelligently written than most films, I wouldn't have believed it. There's great stuff out there.

Just because you shot Jesse James, don't make you Jesse James.