Zach Braff Quotations

As a kid who wasn't into sports, at school I felt almost alienated at times, whereas in the theatre community there was this amazing sense of camaraderie. Early on, we would go to rehearsals with my dad and I was like the mascot for the backstage crew. That was a big part of my childhood, so I dreamed of one day doing a play in London.

I love music and I love musicians and when I hear something that's great, I always say it's like you go to a movie and you can't wait to tell your friends about it.

They put all this money into these huge films and then no one goes to see them. That sort of shows they're out of touch. Then everyone in town passes on my little movie and it does really well.

I always liked the story of Noah's Ark and the idea of starting anew by rescuing the things you like and leaving the rest behind.

I came when I was in high school as part of a student exchange program with the Jewish Community Center in New Jersey, to Ramat Eliyahu. You come and volunteer for five weeks at a day camp. I was a teenager - I couldn't really appreciate it as much, and now I come back as an adult and I can really get the flavor of the city, and I love it.

I had no interest in sports so I didn't make friends in that traditional way where kids are in public school and they go and they join clubs, and play sports. So I kind of had to find my own way to make friends and get attention and so I just was the class clown.

I was kosher until I had my Bar Mitzvah, and I parlayed officially becoming a man into telling my father I wanted to eat cheeseburgers.

Everyone has an idea that they think would be a great movie. Everyone has a cousin who they think you should work with.

I'm sure lots of actors and creative people go through this, where you have some weeks where it's all going according to plan and some weeks where you're super frustrated.

I want to take piano lessons, I want to study at university, I want to travel, I want to do other parts, make another movie.

I think I suffer from some mild depression.

In theater or movies you see either 'I'm religious' or 'I'm an atheist.' I've never seen too much discussion of 'I believe there's a higher power but I'm hesitant to reach out to him because I don't know if I'm worthy of his attention.

I'm by no means condemning prescription medicine for mental health. I've seen it save a lot of people's lives.

My mother's a psychologist, my stepfather's a psychologist, my stepmother is a therapist and my dad's a lawyer. So it was all prominent in my life. I don't know anyone who doesn't know someone on some form of prescription medicine.

I am really driven, but my drive doesn't effect the conversations I have in my head about life, and my worries and fears and insecurities.

I think a lot of people are drawn to seeing people that want to be better. We see it in ourselves.

The best way to travel abroad is to live with the locals.

Ever since I was little it was programmed into me that London is where great theatre occurs and all the big shows you love start there.

I procrastinate so much and I get distracted by anything.

When we shoot 'Scrubs' I spend every waking hour of my life in an abandoned and haunted hospital. All I can date there are ghosts and they tend to be horrible snugglers.

I am really driven, but my drive doesn't affect the conversations I have in my head about life, and worries and fears and insecurities.

I think in a play it's wise to just sit back and watch other actors and be able to shape it from the audience.

Everyone has a warped vision of Hollywood and what success in Hollywood is like.

I went to film school and wanted to learn everything there was about making movies.

I'm putting myself out there in a way I don't know if I ever have before.

I said, I'm on this TV show and I love doing it, but I don't want to be known always as the silly "Scrubs" guy... So part of me was like, You know what? Life's short. Let's go for it.

The way I write is that I'll actually have a conversation out loud with myself. In a weird way, I just kind of get schizophrenic and play two characters.

In New York, we tip everyone. We tip doormen, we tip cab drivers, and we tip bartenders at the bar. You'll get quite an evil eye if you don't leave a tip at the bar.

The success of 'Scrubs' allowed me to pursue anything I felt passionately about without having to worry about money. It allowed me to spend my summer work shopping my show at a nonprofit theater.

I always encourage over-tipping if you can afford it because share the wealth.

I'd always fantasized about writing a new play. Even when I had all this success in television, what I was daydreaming about in my dressing room is that one day I would do it.

I don't care about image and all that nonsense. I'm in sweat pants every day. I don't play the game at all.

I have a great relationship with my parents. I have not been on lithium.

I have no desire to make money off musicians. I just want to promote them because I want to share music.

I know every politician spins the truth a little.

I love 'Scrubs.' It's the best day job in the world.

I'm hanging out with my New York friends, my Jersey boys, my family and loving every single second of it.

That image is a couple different people's homes that I knew growing up.

Actually when I gave out the script, I gave it with a CD of all the music I wanted to put in the movie, and again, we never thought we'd get all that music.

I didn't necessarily have a total idea when I was writing the movie of where everything was going. I just wanted to have really realistic dialogue and write like people I knew talked. I tried to keep it very real.

I think I felt compelled in a way because if I hadn't written the part, I never would have been offered the part. There are at least 10 guys who would have been offered the part before me.

I'm a person who likes these sort of movies... sad but moving 'art movies' that normally are at a festival and then they go to a small art house theater and disappear.

In fifth grade, we had to write a story and read it in front of the class. When I read mine out, the class were just belly laughing. And I remember being like, 'This is the coolest!' So I want to dedicate my life to trying to make people laugh. I can't imagine doing anything else.

It used to be that you came out of school, and you got married - those who were going to get married. But my peers are getting married in their early 30s, so now there's like this extra 10 years of that angst.

For me that's the one that's the most challenging. And I say that not that the other two are easy by any stretch but the one that I feel like requires every aspect of myself. It requires me to be an actor, a writer, an organizer and a leader and I really enjoy it,

Maybe that happens for the filmmakers, but I don't really feel that. I think they felt that before people started seeing the movie and Disney started to see what they had. And Disney saw some early reviews and that thing from Time came in and I think they were feeling a little bit of pressure. Then they started to see that they really had something good as you can see what they are putting into marketing.

I think Jersey is a character (in the film), and there's a dual meaning with a state of mind - a garden is where things begin.

It has a really smart, irreverent look at celebrity and making fun of people who get famous for really odd things,

They all saw my short films, and I think that changed their opinion of me as just a guy on a sitcom because they liked my movie.

I've always wanted to have kids of my own, it's just tough finding a woman I wouldn't be wasting my DNA on.

I just felt that like an actor it's really hard to get a really good role. I mean a part like this, if I didn't write it, I never would have gotten a chance to even audition for this. ... So, I felt like I wanted to give myself a break in the movie world. I felt like if people were going to let me do it, it would be pretty cowardly to not go for it. So I wanted to just, in the spirit of the movie, seize the day,

Gay men in L.A. are all a bunch of tens looking for an eleven.

It was pretty much the last person we found - an independent financier who paid for the whole thing out of his pocket.

I remember seeing her in "Beautiful Girls" and "The Professional" and being like, This girl is genius! This girl is ahead of her time. This girl is a prodigy.

The fifth season isn't a year that's about building an enormous fan base. It's about going, OK these are our hard-core fans, let's make shows for them. Let's really point it at the people who love our show. I feel like this season, more than any, is really aimed at doing all the things we know that people who really love this show love about it.

This movie's really about someone who's opening up a new chapter in their life.

They're huge shoes to fill ... if people see any similarities, he was a goofy guy who wasn't your stereotypical magazine poster boy, but he had the ability to be a great everyman. If I can set out to do anything in my career, it would be to play people that the people can relate to. Those are the parts I'm most interested in doing.

I'd love to do more theater in New York City. And I'd love the chance to do a big movie with a great director -- you know, the Coen brothers or Woody Allen or Steven Spielberg, ... I'd love a shot at that.

The easiest way to lose something is to want it too badly.

I really like just super dry comedy.

I'm kind of jealous of the life I'm supposedly leading.

Retarded kids are the best. When they ask for an autograph I just fake sign a picture and tell them that it's in invisible ink and it will show up later. They totally buy it. It saves me a fortune in markers.

Yeah, the gay pride movement is precious and all, but I think it's about time we asked ourselves what gay people really have to offer to society.

I think a big part of being a success is confidence. Just look at me, I know I'm successful, and I am.

For me, acting in scenes with other people is like playing soccer with a bunch of legless five year olds. It's not really fair to them, but what else can I do, you know?

If God wanted women to be treated equally to men, he'd have given them penises.

I think slavery was an awful, awful period in our history, but when I look at what's become of black culture since emancipation, I think you have to admit, maybe the Confederacy was on to something

I'm not the kind of person who digs through things other people have thrown away.

I'm a busy guy; I just get a lot of people that sound like me to go out and visit them. They don't know the difference and, let's face it, they aren't going to be paying to see my movies anytime soon.

Being around blind people is always a little frustrating to me because I know they have no idea how handsome I am.

In a perfect world, everybody would be gay. I mean if everybody looked like Zach Braff, you just wouldn't be able to resist.

I mean, some people accuse me of being racist. I'm totally not, I'm just better than everybody else.

It's just people trying to get on TV, not like it's really going to do them any good since people can just watch me.

Maybe that's all that family really is, a group of people who all miss the same imaginary place.

I think the saddest moments in life have humor in them. I have a memory of coming home from a funeral with my family in the back of a limousine and someone cracking a joke and us just hysterically belly laughing. It's how we always dealt with tragedy in our lives and I think it's such a healthy way to deal with sadness.

I mean, what's eleven million people now days?

I mean, I know thousands of people died and everything, but if it happened today, there's just no excuse. They'd be much safer inside a movie theater watching one of my movies instead of burning alive in a collapsing skyscraper.

I like the punch beggers and panhandlers when they ask me for change. I feel like I am doing my part to clean up the streets.

Well I can understand why men want it to be legal. Obviously they're all hoping they might get to marry me someday. I hate to burst their bubble, but they should just give it up now. Zach Braff doesn't sway that way, you know?

I was mad when I heard The Amazing Race wasn't about white people.

Is 'Garden State' the next 'Citizen Kane'? Of course not. I'd like to think we aimed a little higher than that, frankly.

You always see actors complaining about being typecast and ruining their career. Really, I don't see the point in complaining. If the only role you can play well is a black dude, you're never going to get ahead in this town, and you should just accept it.

It's a really fun hobby to set imagery to music, and finding the right songs for that. Your favorite song in the world might not work at all... for one reason or another.

I stand stark naked in front of the mirror and gaze directly into my own eyes. I utter 'Good morning, handsome' and my lips quiver as I stare at myown body. I don't break eye contact until I blow my load. Not once do I actually touch myself.

That Hugh Laurie show is nothing but Scrubs fan fiction.

One of the things about Scrubs is that it's about great friendships and... as broad and as serious as we get it's always really about friendship. It's about getting through the challenging parts of your life with the help of your friends.

Every time I see a child walking down the street I like to trip them. While they look for their missing teeth, I personally remind them that no matter how hard they try I will always be better than them.

I never taught a blind/deaf chick to read, but somehow I've managed to turn Scrubs into a watchable show. That may not sound like much, but take a look at my surrounding cast and ask yourself, who's the real miracle worker?

If John McCain were really a war hero he would've won Vietnam.

I always wanted to direct movies. That's what I set out to do. When I was a little kid I just dreamed of making movies, and I went to film school.

I'm a big proponent of 'Don't Ask, Don't tell,' in fact, I enforce it strictly on all of my dates. First, I don't ask them for sex, and then I warn them not to tell anyone after I'm through.

Every single person wants to do it, don't hate me because I had the guts to follow my heart!

If I wasn't an actor? Hmm, I'd probably be a serial killer. I'm just so damn likeable, no one would ever suspect me.

I'm a film geek man. I love toys. I love everything in filmmaking, so for me to just be around this technology is just so cool to watch it being used for the first time, some of the stuff.

To say I live a cursed life is an understatement. I have to get up every day and work with people who are not as successful as me nor will they ever be as successful as me. Nobody knows the struggles I go through.

I'd like to think that my scripts are more significant than maybe the Bible or the book that the Jews use, whatever it's called. And that's only when I'm having an off day.

I've always tried to learn from the greats: Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, Ghandi, Buddha, Jesus... it's just that there's this tremendous pressure to correct all the things they got wrong.

I don't know why people were so upset with me. Prince got his own symbol. I just wanted to adopt the handicap symbol as my own so I could park in handicap spots. Deformed people should be honored to park so close to me. Meeting a celebrity like me may give them hope in their mistake of a life.

I'm not an hour late. You guys were just an hour early.

People are always going to find fault with anything you do, any process that you're a part of. The creative process means taking risks, I've taken risks and I've made mistakes, but the bottom line is, could anyone else have done any better ? I have to believe that what I created was worthwhile.