Johnny Flynn Quotes

The thing is, about a character, it's not about being right, it's about the truth. The truth comes from within, so you have to search as an artist for the truth.

As someone whose music is connected to his personal growth, I feel an obligation to follow this muse wherever it leads.

Songwriting is like going to church. I'm connecting to something, and it's rewarding in really important ways. I don't need to share it with anyone to feel good about it.

I can't play anything until I find something that connects to my life, something I can carry as my secret map or code for the character.

At the end of the day, I think that I'm making music for me as that 12-year-old kid in front of my boombox every day. I try to think about, if I'm that little kid, what would he like?

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction - they're always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

I try as hard as I can to write from a personal place and be genuine.

I just worked my own personal thoughts into my music, and just kept at it until I found a way in.

Each time I write, each time the authentic words break through, I am changed. The older order that I was collapses and dies. I lose control. I do not know exactly what words will appear on the page. I follow language. I follow the sound of the words, and I am surprised and transformed by what I record.

'Birdman' came from a very beautiful side of me, from a part of honesty and surrender about things.

One of the most important reasons for living is to do something - live outside of yourself and put together an idea, an idea that you want to explore and then complete... Awaken your creative sensitivities!

Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.

The first audience that you have when writing a book is you.

We should try to understand our innermost needs. We shouldn't use irony to reduce their power.

My act has always reflected what's going on in my life.

I think the solo playing, the decision to start playing solo, came out of having discovered what lay behind the doors that that technique opened for me.

It is important to express oneself... provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience.

I had a lot of songs and words and scenes stuck inside of me. So Jacknife encouraged me to bring them all out. So, in essence, 'You and Others' is my diary.

I can't constantly be trying to write the unwritten song, the song that the 15-year-old girl needs. I need to write the song that I need.

Whatever I'm writing comes organically out of my life.

I think there's always this idea in your head, but you have to allow the film to take its own course.

My work is has always been very, very personal.

Writing changed my life. It has an existential dimension, and that's the same for every writer. Every artist has a moment of awakening, of happening upon an idea that grabs hold of you, regardless of whether you are a painter or a writer.

Whatever happens in my life, whether I stand up or I fall down, whatever the case, I'm going to use it in my art. Why? Because I'm an artist and I have to.

I know how I want to operate as an artist. And that is by having an honest, genuine dialogue about this kind of screwed up journey I've had that I'm so thankful for.