Johnstone Quotes & Sayings

The true significance, then, of absolute music is that it expresses human personality at its finest moments, adequately, beautifully and spiritually, by the medium of sound. And therefore our finest music is one of the supreme possessions of the world ; for there is nothing greater than great personality. — J. Alfred Johnstone

By strengthening our compassion, we give fuel to our courage and determination. — Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Every time you go the way the audience expects, they'll think you're original. People laugh with pleasure at the obvious. — Keith Johnstone

Suppose Mozart had tried to be original? It would have been like a man at the North Pole trying to walk north, and this is true of all of the rest of us. Striving after originality takes you far away from your true self, and makes your work mediocre. — Keith Johnstone

But the advice was not taken - Johnstone did emigrate to Canada, and did mortgage his pension; and I fear - though I failed to trace his after history - that he suffered in consequence. — Hugh Miller

If we reach the cities, we will reach the nation. If we fail in the cities, they will become a cesspool that infects the entire nation. — Patrick Johnstone

He's one of those footballers whose brains are in his head. — Derek Johnstone

Thad asked, "Why does she keep calling you Kid, Mr.Morgan? Something about that sounds mite familiar."

"Son of a gun!" Bill suddenly exclaimed. "He's Kid Morgan, the gunfighter! I've read about him!

Lace glanced at The Kid and smiled. "Looks like your secret's out."

"It was never that much of a secret." The Kid shrugged.

"Well, I'm glad I don't have to keep it anymore," Nick said.

The Gustaffson brothers looked at him. Bill said, "You knew about this?"

"Yeah," Nick replied, looking a little ashamed. "I'm sorry, fellas. Mr.Morgan asked me to keep quiet about it, and I promised him I would. — J.A. Johnstone

It has been said that it's hard to stop a man who knows he's in the right and just keeps on coming. Smoke knew he was right - and he kept on coming. — William W. Johnstone

Don't come on to be funny - come on to solve problems. — Keith Johnstone

Laughter is a whip that keeps us in line. It's horrible to be laughed at against your will. Either you suppress unwelcome laughter or you start controlling it. — Keith Johnstone

Enjoy things even when you're screwing up. — Keith Johnstone

...the teacher picked a flower and said: 'Look at the pretty flower, Betty.'

Betty, filled with spiritual radiance, said, 'All the flowers are beautiful.'

'Ah,' said the teacher, blocking her, 'but this flower is especially beautiful.'

Betty rolled on the ground screaming, and it took a while to calm her. Nobody seemed to notice that she was screaming 'Can't you see? Can't you see!'

In the gentlest possible way, this teacher had been very violent. She was insisting on categorising, and on selecting. — Keith Johnstone

The best laughs are on the recognition of truth. — Keith Johnstone

The improviser has to understand that his first skill lies in releasing his partner's imagination. — Keith Johnstone

Most people I meet are secretly convinced that they're a little crazier than the average person. People understand the energy necessary to maintain their own shields, but not the energy expended by other people. They understand that their own sanity is a performance, but when confronted by other people they confuse the person with the role. — Keith Johnstone

I don't even think you should tell the audience you're improvising. It's like an apology in case it's bad : 'we're just making it up' If the improv isn't better than the rehearsed stuff, then you should just rehearse it. — Keith Johnstone

A world without books is like a playground without children.
Natasha Johnstone — Ash Stone

What a person is afraid to do, he does while possessed. — Keith Johnstone

As I grew up, everything started getting grey and dull. I could still remember the amazing intensity of the world I'd lived in as a child, but I thought the dulling of perception was an inevitable consequence of age - just as a lens of the eye is bound gradually to dim. I didn't understand that clarity is in the mind. — Keith Johnstone

If you believe you're good already, you don't need to do extra stuff to impress us. Your best work comes when you're absorbed; because then your ego is away. — Keith Johnstone

Advice his father had given him years before sounded in his mind: "In most of what you face, son, you'll make it through if you don't give in to panic." He — William W. Johnstone

There are people who prefer to say 'yes' and there are people who prefer to say 'no'. Those who say 'yes' are rewarded by the adventures they have. Those who say 'no' are rewarded by the safety they attain. — Keith Johnstone

I think my brain is much more intelligent than I am ... so I tend to trust it. — Keith Johnstone

On her new LP, Shatter, Jude Johnstone examines heartbreak and loss with such tender resignation that I wept in acknowledgement of its artful simplicity. A lesson in melodic grace delivered by as fine a singer-songwriter as any I know. — Rodney Crowell

Good impro can make you laugh, we love it, but soon the content is forgotten. Good scenes from The Life Game stay with you always. They haunt you. — Keith Johnstone

Those who say yes are rewarded by the adventures they have. — Keith Johnstone

If you have a good idea, open your mouth and say something else. — Keith Johnstone

Thanks. I'll be right there." Kreaver — D.L. Johnstone

Much of the oxygen we breathe comes from plants that died long ago. We can give thanks to these ancestors of our present-pay foliage, but we can't give back to them. We can, however, give forward. When we are unable to return the favor, we can pay it forward to someone or something else. Using this approach, we can see ourselves as part of a larger flow of giving and receiving throughout time. Receiving from the past, we can give to the future. When tackling issues such as climate change, the stance of gratitude is a refreshing alternative to guilt or fear as a source of motivation. — Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

My feeling is that a good teacher can get results using any method, and that a bad teacher can wreck any method. — Keith Johnstone

The mime must first of all be aware of this boundless contact with things. There is no insulating layer of air between the man and the outside world. Any man who moves causes ripples in the ambient word in the same way a fish does when it moves in the water. — Keith Johnstone

strings, piano and brass she often — Stuart Johnstone

In a normal education everything is designed to suppress spontaneity, but I wanted to develop it. — Keith Johnstone

Many teachers think of children as immature adults. It might lead to better and more 'respectful' teaching, if we thought of adults as atrophied children. — Keith Johnstone

Sanity is actually a pretence, a way we learn to behave. We keep this pretence up because we don't want to be rejected by other people - and being classified insane is to be shut out of the group in a very complete way.
Most people I meet are secretly convinced that they're a little crazier than the average person. People understand the energy necessary to maintain their own shields, but not the energy expended by other people. They understand that their own sanity is a performance, but when confronted by other people they confuse the person with the role.
Sanity has nothing directly to do with the way you think. Its a matter of presenting yourself as safe. — Keith Johnstone

What makes Jay Johnstone unusual is that he thinks he's normal and everyone else is nuts. — Danny Ozark

Good improvisers seem telepathic; everything looks pre-arranged, This is because they accept all offers made - which is something no 'normal' person would do. — Keith Johnstone

In the American oligarchy, the President is a temporary chairman of the board who is there to take responsibility for actions decided in private sessions. He is there to sell policy more than to make it. — Diana Johnstone

By refreshing our sense of belonging in the world, we widen the web of relationships that nourishes us and protects us from burnout. — Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Once upon a time, my government turned my city into a police state, kidnapped me, and tortured me. When I got free, I decided that the problem wasn't the system, but who was running it. Bad guys had gotten into places of high office. We needed good apples. I worked my butt off to get people to vote for good apples. We had elections. We installed the kind of apples everyone agreed would be the kind of apples we could be proud of. They said good things. A few real dirtbags like Carrie Johnstone lost their jobs.
And then, well, the good apples turned out to act pretty much exactly like the bad apples. Oh, they had reasons. There were emergencies. Circumstances. It was all really regrettable.
But there were always emergencies, weren't there? — Cory Doctorow

None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public. — Keith Johnstone

I find this day Stands in the way Of finding you Beneath the blue — Vickie Johnstone

My feeling is that sanity is actually a pretence, a way we learn to behave. We keep this pretence up because we don't want to be rejected by other people - and being classified insane is to be shut out of the group in a very complete way. — Keith Johnstone

A smile is the lighting system of the face and the heating system of the heart — Barbara Johnstone

[T]hat little voice shut up the instant I did something. And not just something: the exact thing I knew to be right. Because if the system was broken, if Carrie Johnstone wasn't going to ever pay consequences for her action, it wasn't because "the system" failed to get her. It was because people like me chose not to act when we could. The system was people, and I was part of it, part of its problems, and I was going to be part of the solution from now on. — Cory Doctorow

Anglo-Saxon barbarians. Arthur should have been made a Knight — William W. Johnstone

If it weren't for fear, I wouldn't have to teach you a damn thing — Keith Johnstone

He simply knew his own mind and found it company enough. — Ian Johnstone

An artist who is inspired is being obvious. He's not making any decisions, he's not weighing one idea against another. He's accepting his first thoughts. — Keith Johnstone

In a scene [where the improvisers must interact] without the letter S, the audience is waiting for you to lose - so they can laugh at you. Don't try to win. — Keith Johnstone

The most amazing thing I've ever seen was Jay Johnstone, in uniform, in line at a concession stand in Dodger Stadium after the game had already started. — Fred Claire

I was a model Marine.. My rifle was always clean, uniform always starched, and the shoes always shined. I guess that's how I became so neat-sort of the Felix Unger of baseball roomates. Blame it on the Marines. — Jay Johnstone

Because French is the language of love, my boy. Something you should keep in mind, but will soon forget. — William W. Johnstone

In the past, changing the self and changing the world were often regarded as separate endeavors and viewed in either-or terms. But in the story of the Great Turning, they are recognized as mutually reinforcing and essential to one another. — Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

JULY 20. I've just walked into the opera house. I have no programme. Strange new players are premiering a piece by a flamboyant new composer. Front and centre, three, maybe four, whales begin - a swelling string section - discordant, irresolute harmonies fill the concert hall. Then two more whales, stage right, come in, playing eight octave clarinets, counterpointing the string section. And then they, too, are counterpointed by occasional glissando slurs and passages played pizzicato by whales at the rear of the stage. But suddenly, a programme change: The orchestra members switch clothes and pull new instruments from their cases. The French horn players begin wailing on shiny, sleazy saxophones. The trumpeters spit rapid-fire bursts into an underwater echo chamber - the deep, rocky corridor of Johnstone Strait. — Erich Hoyt

Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe.
The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his audience died of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos was reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his 12-book epic entitled "My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles" when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain.
The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, in the destruction of the planet Earth. Vogon poetry is mild by comparison. — Douglas Adams