A Quote by John Flansburgh

Between me and my wife, there's this joke where I'll be doing some fun interview, and I'll get off the phone and be like, "That guy was an idiot." A lot of times, interviews are like being asked a list of questions. Invariably, there will be this part where they think you're a writer for Letterman: "Just off the top of your head, tell me the 10 most influential bands on you." And you're actually asked to come up with a spontaneous list. It's like, "Dude, I'm not living in High Fidelity."

John Flansburgh

Quote Topics

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Quote Author

John Flansburgh
American - Musician
Born: May 6, 1960

I've done a lot of interviews of the last few years, and I've actually started a list of questions that it would be fun to ask an author, but no respectable interviewer would ever ask. Since I'm not respectable, I'm going to start doing interviews with some authors I know, just for fun.

Patrick Rothfuss

I was a guy who loved to be on my own at times and to travel and some of the most comfortable times were in the middle of my career flying overseas, where you have to turn your phone off and no one can get to you for 10 hours. It was just a really comfortable place for me.

Mardy Fish

Curiosity and listening [are the principles to an excellent interview]. I never go into an interview with a dedicated list of questions in which I will not deviate. You must be curious about the subject and listen to his answer and ask the next question off that rather than the next question on your list.

Michael Kay

Coming up with the bucket list is the easy part, but ticking off the list is the challenge. I love a good challenge, which is why I strongly advise everyone to come up with a bucket list. It doesn't have to contain out of this world tasks. But once you have written down the list, screw it, just do it!

Richard Branson

I was spurred by the fact that having worked for women's magazines myself as a journalist, if you go off and interview a female celebrity, I'd just go in and interview them like I'd interview any human being and talk about the things that interested me. And you'd come back, and you'd file your copy. And then my editor would read through my copy and go, why haven't you asked them if they want kids? And I'd be like, well, I don't know, I interviewed Aerosmith last week. And I didn't ask them that.

Caitlin Moran

When I was young I was on punishment a lot and I used to watch a lot of TV, and I asked myself a question: 'How come people like Mike? How come they like Magic? How come they like Bird? How come they don't like the big guys?' So I just throw a little bit of what they were doing. You smile, you act crazy and silly. And I think people like me because I'm different. I've always been a class clown type of guy. It comes natural.

Shaquille O'Neal

I remember, and I will never forget, one day - I was six years old and I was playing beside the road and this plantation owner drove up to me and stopped and asked me "could I pick some cotton." I told him I didn't know and he said, "Yes, you can. I will give you things that you want from the commissary store," and he named a huge list that he called off. I picked the 30 pounds of cotton that week, but I found out what actually happened was he was trapping me into beginning the work I was to keep doing and I never did get out of his debt again.

Fannie Lou Hamer

The real questions are the ones that obtrude upon your consciousness whether you like it or not, the ones that make your mind start vibrating like a jackhammer, the ones that you "come to terms with" only to discover that they are still there. The real questions refuse to be placated. They barge into your life at the times when it seems most important for them to stay away. They are the questions asked most frequently and answered most inadequately, the ones that reveal their true natures slowly, reluctantly, most often against your will.

Ingrid Bengis

To me, I'm honored to be able to talk to and interview people like Dr. Harry Edwards and Emmitt Smith, and just to be able to ask them questions is an unbelievable opportunity. I'm not a journalist. I have no idea about that. My wife is 10 times the writer that I am. I'm not going to be on that level.

Harrison Barnes

I've been asked to do 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!' and I do get asked to do all sorts of things like that - but I don't want to put my career on hold. I'd have to take three weeks off to do something like that. Maybe it's something I'd think about after it's all ended.

Laura Trott

I've ended up on some website list or some other list for super right-wing people. They've been tweeting some pretty rude stuff at me, so I think there's a sect of America out there that doesn't like certain opinions and can really take their claws out when they don't like what you're saying.

Jack Antonoff

When we do interviews and we get asked the same questions over and over, I'm like, 'I wish we'd get asked something different.' But when we do, I have no idea. I'm not prepared. Because it's hard to remember your own life!

Perrie Edwards

Once, after a long week, I felt so insecure that I decided to make a list of people who thought I was funny even if I didn't think I was. At the top of the list, I wrote, 'Garry Shandling.' His early praise protected me like a comedy-writer version of Harry Potter's scar.

Nell Scovell

I just got asked by another journalist 'Are you a feminist?' and I was just like... Is there a strange thing at the moment where you have to come out as a feminist? I've been asked if I'm a feminist so many times recently, and I'm just like 'Yes, yes, for God's sake, yes! Is there something that I give off that says I'm not?'

Daniel Radcliffe

So many interviews, even ones that I consider really intelligent and good writers, will do the, like, 'Oh, you're not taking your clothes off like Miley Cyrus and all these girls' thing, which to me is just the weirdest thing to say to someone. ... Now when people are like, 'Tell me what you think of Miley!' I'll say, 'What do you think of Miley?' and they'll flounder and say, 'Well, I think she's really talented...' and I'm like, there you go.