Education is very important to me.

- J. K. Simmons

When I read the script and saw the jazz music setting, and when I read the name of the filmmaker was Damien Chazelle, I immediately got this mental image of Antoine Fuqua.

- J. K. Simmons

I don't think I've ever watched a movie to prepare for a role.

- J. K. Simmons

I don't respond to authority figures who abuse their authority.

- J. K. Simmons

I do think you need to understand a character's motivation and perspective.

- J. K. Simmons

I do respond well to a director, a teacher - someone who doesn't accept mediocrity.

- J. K. Simmons

I completely agree with feeling the need for or the benefits of being pushed and of being directed on a project and collaborating.

- J. K. Simmons

I come from a family of educators. My sister is a college teacher. My dad is a college teacher, but first a junior high teacher.

- J. K. Simmons

I am who I am. I have a low voice, and I look like somebody's dad or boss or a police chief, and those roles come my way.

- J. K. Simmons

I actually was a musician in college, a composer and singer, and really intended to be the second coming of Leonard Bernstein when I got out.

- J. K. Simmons

Good material is good material.

- J. K. Simmons

I was not a giant comic book fan as a kid, but to the extent that I did read comics, Spider-Man was always my favorite guy.

- J. K. Simmons

By the time I started doing TV and film, I was in my forties, so I wasn't going to do the young up-and-comer.

- J. K. Simmons

Being evil is easy.

- J. K. Simmons

Almost every character I've ever played - and sometimes this is very conscious and sometimes it's not - I need to find what they love.

- J. K. Simmons

I actually have a degree in music and was aware that music was a tool used in therapy. I didn't realize how far it had come since I was in college in the mid-seventies.

- J. K. Simmons

I like to act. Every other aspect of show business I find uninteresting.

- J. K. Simmons

The best complement I ever got from the public or producers or directors is that I just totally blend in and become the character and they don't notice me and that the play happens or the movie happens or the TV show happens.

- J. K. Simmons

I'm not a fan of any genre but am a fan of movies that are intelligent and/or funny. That goes across all genres: a horror movie, a zombie movie, alien invaders, chick flick, or raunchy comedy. If it's well done, I'm a fan.

- J. K. Simmons

I never listened to the Grateful Dead as a teen; the only exposure I got was what came through the walls when my sister was listening to them.

- J. K. Simmons