Quote

Some people in this life think they're worth something, or that they have a right to things. I never thought I had a right to anything 'cause of the way I was broken as a child. And therefore I was sort of floating around and would get sucked into things.

Keith Johnstone

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Keith Johnstone
Age: 91
Born: 1933
Born: February 22
Actor
Dramaturge
Film Director
Improviser
Playwright
Theatrical Director
University Teacher
Devonshire
Thinking
Right
Worth
Life
Children
Cause
People
Something
Sort
Way
Causes
Things
Child
Sucked
Never
Around
Floating
Would
Thought
Therefore
Think
Anything
Broken

More quotes by Keith Johnstone

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The improviser has to understand that his first skill lies in releasing his partner’s imagination.
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The improvisation had to be in public, because you only get value playing to strangers.
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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, and those who say ‘No’ are rewarded by the safety they attain.
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The best laughs are on the recognition of truth.
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I see a great lack of stories around. I bought six literary magazines and looked through them to see what people were doing. There wasn't a story in them. They were all about how poetic the feelings of the author were.
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If you have a good idea, open your mouth and say something else.
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Every theatre worth anything has somebody in the middle of it who is driving it like Joan Littlewood with her theatre.
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I think my brain is much more intelligent than I am...so I tend to trust it.
Keith Johnstone
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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.
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I'm not against work, I think work is great, I work a lot but if you want to play, the consequences must not be important.
Keith Johnstone
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Where if you're in a universe where you have to accept ideas, you'll never know if your partner wanted the garbage you're handing them. They have to take it.
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I tell people not to do their best. I don't know when that started. Quite a while ago. Because I . . . when they're doing their best I don't get their best. So I try to persuade them to be average. Because if you're wonderful and you're average, you're still wonderful. If you're a bad improviser and you're average, you're what you are.
Keith Johnstone
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If people had no fear, you'd hardly need to have to teach them. It's the fear that screws everything up.
Keith Johnstone
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Trying to do better is trying to be better than you actually are, and I don't think you can do that.
Keith Johnstone
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Imagination is as effortless as perception, unless we think it might be ‘wrong’, which is what our education encourages us to believe.
Keith Johnstone
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My feeling is the moment the theatre is not full you have to do something else. But most people somehow think 'If we did it better, they would come'. No. They don't come.
Keith Johnstone
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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
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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
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In life most of us are highly skilled at suppressing action. Bad improvisers block action often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.
Keith Johnstone
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Don't come on to be funny - come on to solve problems.
Keith Johnstone