You probably know John Travolta best from his early cinematic hits including Saturday Night Fever and Grease. As a young actor, Travolta was pegged as a good-looking bad boy with great hair and even better dance moves. As his career progressed, he took on different kinds of roles with varying degrees of success. From Pulp Fiction to American Crime Story, he’s an experienced actor who juggles his time in the spotlight with time spent with family. John Travolta quotes reveal what he thinks about his career and life in general.
After dropping out of school, Travolta followed his passion for music and drama from New York City to LA. He landed several roles early in his career, and his hit single titled “Let Her In” helped him earn several leading parts in big musicals. In 1977, he was Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. Then in 1978, he led the cast of Grease as everyone’s favorite bad boy, Danny Zuko.
Travolta’s career took a few hits after his 70’s success, but the determined actor rallied in the 1990s and 2000s. He stepped away from his musical roots (with the exception of Hairspray in 2007) and took on several action films and thrillers.
While navigating his career, Travolta has also suffered significant losses. His son died in 2009 at the age of 16, and his wife lost her battle to breast cancer in 2020. Today, he prefers to spend time with his remaining two children. He is also a private pilot and a practitioner of Scientology.
It’s been fifty years since John Travolta first started acting, and his life has taken many different turns. These John Travolta quotes span decades and follows this interesting man through every event.
We hope you enjoy this collection of John Travolta quotes we have for you here on CleverQuotes.com!
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“Your life starts to take shape at 30. You don’t have to make excuses for who you are anymore.”
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“I love fun movies that also have something to say. They tend to stay with me, always.”
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“Oh yeah, dancing’s part of my soul. I enjoy it, it makes people happy, and it makes me happy.”
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“I love watching old movies, and some of the holiday-themed ones are really great. I also have a bizarre thing that I’ll do: I’ll turn on a foreign-language TV station, usually Spanish, and watch a whole show, riveted, even though I have no idea what anyone is saying. I don’t know why I find that so addictive, but I do!”
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“I’ve always had an innate ability to dance, but I’m not as spiffy as those cinema legends like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.”
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“A lot of actors never talk to other actors about how they’re doing things, or why. I think it’s important to share the way you’re thinking.”
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“I’m realizing that for so much of my life I had an older viewpoint; I saw things as an older person. That’s common among change-of-life babies. So I have this dichotomy where I’m either, like, super young or feel like I’m coming to the end of my years.”
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“Acting is a mix of luck and choice. I got lucky.”
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“When my mother died, it sort of put a damper on things. My career didn’t have the same significance or excitement. It had always been about doing well for my family – my brothers, sisters, father, mother. Then something interesting and important happened – I started doing things for me.”
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“I was suited for fame, and I mean that in the most non-egocentric way. I don’t mind gearing my life towards privacy. It’s my nature.”
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“I actually do like playing off-beat people. I think it’s more fun.”
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“For a while, I was saying ‘no’ way too often. I turned down ‘An Officer and A Gentleman,’ ‘Splash’ and ‘Midnight Express.’ I could name you tons more. I would go off and experience life instead of working – I was learning to fly jets, went on an African safari, sailed the Caribbean – which wasn’t necessarily bad.”
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“I think my friend Tom Hanks knows me. He understands me very well. He’s always had a sort of parental feeling toward me. He knows I’m a big mushball, which is just part of my personality.”
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“I am not at all computer literate in real life. I haven’t yet found a reason to be. Once I find a reason why I need to be on the Internet, then I will be.”
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“I think, for sure, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction were kind of bookends for – or the pillars of – my career.”
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“When I was a very little boy, I lived underneath the air pattern of LaGuardia airport in New York and I watched the planes fly to their destinations. I was in love with the design of these airplanes.”
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“I’ve always thought of, of a relationship with an actor to an audience as a marriage, you know. And a story, you know. And there are ups and downs, and you work through them, and you work with them.”
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“Having kids is something you can’t always do. Kids are like lightning. You grab that lightning when you can get it.”
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“When I say ‘yes’ to a movie it’s usually because, to a greater or lesser extent, it’s because I’m enthusiastic about the character. How well that character ultimately comes off depends on a lot of things: your relationship with the director and so on. But at first, you’re on board because you think you can do something with it.”
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“I’m not big on sequels; I’ve done them, but I like doing little things that have their own timelessness to them, classic type things, and then you go onto something new.”
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“I love being regarded as a sex symbol, but I can’t take it too seriously.”
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“You can’t control the quality of projects that are coming to you, so if you get several in a row that are quality, you take them.”
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“The good and wonderful thing about my whole career is that I’ve always felt that the audience if I do it well, will track wherever I go, whether it’s President or a lawyer or bad guy or good.”
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“Something can happen in your life, and you might want and need something different from your spouse. Most people forget that you have to create relationships. The allure of the first years settles down, and at that moment, you better start creating it; otherwise, you’re going to lose out.”
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“As you get older, you have to force yourself to have new dreams. For instance, I’ve been flying for 37 years, but now teaching others to fly is interesting for me. Sometimes you have to find new angles on life to keep you interested, like sharing successes and inspiring and helping others.”
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“Good writing is good writing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t orchestrate it or tweak it.”
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“I don’t believe in regrets; I believe your future is in your tomorrows.”
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“I’ve done so many interviews that I’ve gotten past the ego and the personality.”
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“Playing a bad guy is always a freeing experience because you don’t have the same envelope of restrictions as you have playing a good guy. Good guys restrain themselves; they kind of have their moral fiber cut out for them in varying degrees.”
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“You feel alive to the degree that you feel you can help others.”
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“Princess Diana was a nice dancer because she had confidence. In fact, when we danced together she started to lead, and I looked her in eye and went, ‘No, you have to let me lead.’ So I grabbed her around the waist and we were off to the races.”
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“I was just thinking of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe and how young they were when they died. I would like to be a pop icon who survives. I would like to be a living icon.”
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“I learned early on to stay away from gossip magazines and reviews. That stuff just makes you unhappy, and I know actors that read everything that’s written about them and they’re miserable. You can choose what to let into your life.”
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“I wouldn’t trade my career with anybody’s. I’d trade a few movies with Tom Hanks – ‘Apollo 13’ and ‘Forrest Gump’ – but other than that, I love my career.”
