Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I fell in love with the legend of Paul Robeson as a kid. My dad would tell me all these amazing stories about his life and, bizarrely, ended up singing to Robeson on his deathbed. "

Related Quotes:

" Our job as actors is to invent the things that bridge ourselves with the characters, so you have to build something if it's not there - you try and learn what makes people behave in a certain way. "

Johnny Flynn

Bridge

Build

Job

" I try and stay in my right brain as much as I can, but my left takes over. "

" My dad was working class. "

" It's not in the mainstream media, but across towns, it is amazing how there are small groups of people getting together and forming artistic collectives - they may not be being overtly political, but I'd say by channelling their energy into community projects, that's a valid political statement. "

" There's something amazing about 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Office' only being two series. I think, when you really nail it, you don't need to do more than two or three. "

" If you're trying to do something wholly new, it's hard to fully trust it. But if you use forms that have come before, it lends your music weight and authority. It's also a way to acknowledge that it's not just you who's feeling these things. The emotions are coming through you from a whole history. "

" I'm a big Bob Dylan fan. I'm also a blues geek. "

" In my mind, there's usually a fairly definitive kind of narrative when I write. But I don't want to enforce that on other people. I think that's why I like using metaphor so much. "

" I've always identified as an actor. That's what I set out to do. "

" I've been cast in a lot of comedies. I've done things like multi-cam sitcoms: you know, 'Seinfeld' type... not as good as 'Seinfeld,' but that kind of thing. I love that stuff. "

" I take them both seriously - I don't particularly want to be an 'actor-musician.' I want to play the great challenging parts, to be right for the part, rather than just, 'Oh, he can play the fiddle.' "

Johnny Flynn

Seriously

Want

" I just said, casually, 'You know, I passed up on auditioning for Einstein.' And my friend was like, 'You idiot, you have to do it!' She made me do it. I sent the tapes off assuming that somebody would say, 'Ha ha, very funny.' "

Johnny Flynn

Funny

Know

" All the adults in my family were actors, so there wasn't much else in terms of role models. I fell in love with that world, being backstage at the theatre. "

" I'm married to the girl that I first went out with when I was 16. We were on and off for years; now we're married with a kid, so I don't have that many exes. "

" The truth is there's always a hum of people playing folk music in cities. "

" When I first moved to London, there was talk of a folk revival, with annoying names like nu-folk that made me feel slightly ill. "

Johnny Flynn

Talk

Names

" We had no money, my dad was out of work a lot, and we never owned a house. It was very hand-to-mouth. "

" Diane Cluck is part of the anti-folk movement in New York. She's got a really haunting voice, and she usually sings in the pentatonic scale. "

" If you're in a garage band, it's about being better than the band in the next-door garage. But in the folk tradition, it's more a vibe of sharing. "

" I played trumpet for Noah and the Whale a couple of times. "

" Taking someone else's language and fitting it into your own speech - you learn a lot about other people's brains, doing that. "

" I imagine that, for most people, acting isn't something they think is a viable option, whereas for me, it was the most viable option. No adults around me knew how to do anything else. "

Johnny Flynn

Think

Most

" I always love going to New York. "

" We all have these shades in our nature: it's a spectrum within all of us. "

" When I was young, I was being pushed, against my will, towards becoming a classical musician. I had music scholarships; I had to play the violin and do orchestra practice and that sort of stuff. That meant I didn't get to do any school plays. I desperately wanted to do that. "

" I've never done anything like 'Brotherhood' before. It was a great challenge to take up a part in a live audience sitcom - it was amazing. "

" A lot of the work I've done has involved playing quite sympathetic characters. "

" My only incentive is to write music that changes me, where the process of making it is a discovery and is true in some way, at that moment. "

" It's great being an actor and being part of a play or a film where there's usually quite a big group of people who are collaborating, and your job is really to fit in and share that energy. With music, because I write the songs, it's a broader, more abstract process. "

" I'm not that politically educated. "

Johnny Flynn

Educated

Politically