John Carroll Lynch Quotes

I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.

I let characters be human and flawed and relatable. When we do things that aren't that great, we can understand it.

I feel like life is much greater than a hero or a villain: there's good people that sometimes make mistakes.

If you're truthful with yourself and others, forgiveness clears the path to righteousness, to grace. All we want is grace. We all want that light in our lives. And we can only get that when we go deep into truth.

Nothing that comes from the deep, passional soul is bad, or can be bad.

I think all of us, under certain circumstances, could be capable of some very despicable acts. And that's why, over the years, in my movies I've had characters who didn't care what people thought about them. We try to be as true to them as possible and maybe see part of ourselves in there that we may not like.

We can only write well about our sins because it is too difficult to recall a virtuous act or even whether it was the result of good or evil motives.

At this very moment in time there will be people making, breaking relationships, regretting deeply what they've done, and causing hurt, but that is a fact of life, and if we weren't full of emotion, we'd be automatons, and I don't think people want us to be that.

White shall not neutralize the black, nor good compensate bad in man, absolve him so: life's business being just the terrible choice.

Some people give themselves over to their most evil desires, and those people becomes evil. But in general, it's reductive to think of evil as something foreign and separate from the rest of us. Evil is part of everyone. We all have the capacity to commit evil acts.

I try to find what makes even the worst, most despicable character sympathetic at his or her core.

I like to play people who are deeply flawed, and I want to find the good nature in them. I even try to be kind to myself when I've made big mistakes.

I'd like to think Fleabag's honesty makes her heroic in spite of her actions.

I think that with everything I've done, in the end, whoever the central character is, they would find a way to forgive, because that's really important to me.

Perhaps I can say that I am a bit astute, that I can adapt to circumstances, but it is also true that I am a bit naive. Yes, but the best summary, the one that comes more from the inside and I feel most true is this: I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.

I think there is something in my books that says these are people doing their best under difficult circumstances - sometimes they do wrong things and make mistakes, but who doesn't? And who wants to read about somebody who never does?

'Evil' is quite a blanket term. People aren't the demonic characters we would like them to be sometimes.

Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested. Even the real monsters have to have a spark of something you can relate to.

Villains are fun. I think the important thing in playing them is that they don't see themselves as villains. It lets you be a little more expansive.

In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad.

There's a little good and bad in everyone. Everybody I've ever loved is very complicated.

You know, we all can do bad, and we all can do good.

The literary story is a story that deals with the complicated human heart with an honest tolerance for the ambiguity in which we live. No good guys, no bad guys, just guys: that is, people bearing up in the crucible of their days and certainly not always - if ever - capable of articulating their condition.

I think you can do something bad, and it doesn't make you a bad person. We are not defined by any one choice. We are the sum of our experiences, and we can make a bad choice and turn around and do better.

I tried to manipulate and control people, and I harbored resentment. I wanted to be forgiven, but I wouldn't forgive others.