Quotes by Flynn

"It isn't what they say about you, it's what they whisper."

"I get the feeling that life is slipping by me - the time is passing and I am not living fully."

"I’ve lived twice and I’ve had a marvelous life."

"I felt rich when I had accumulated twenty-five dollars."

"It was pleasant to be carefree and irresponsible - but these days, there doesn’t seem to be any geography left in which to be carefree and irresponsible."

"I suppose most of us act all our lives. We have a façade, a front. We imagine ourselves to be what we’re not, don’t we?"

Alexis Smith, co-star, asked him if he wanted to live to be an old man and he responded, "No, I like this half of life best and I want to live it to the hilt."

"I got more of a kick out of writing than I do out of making pictures."

"Women won't let me stay single and I won't let myself stay married."

"I'm thinking of giving up acting and devoting myself to full-time litigation."

"My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income."

"I allow myself to be known as a colorful fragment in a drab world."

"I hadn't the least idea of what I was doing, except that I was supposed to be an actor."
--after working three weeks on In the Wake of the Bounty, his first film.

"If there’s anyone listening to whom I owe money, I’m prepared to forget about it if you are."

Quotes about Flynn

"He was a charming and magnetic man, but so tormented. I don't know about what, but tormented."
-– Olivia DeHavilland, actress

"He was all the heroes in one magnificent, sexy, animal package. I just wish we had someone around today half as good as Flynn."
-– Jack L. Warner, studio boss

"He was one of the most poetic men I have ever met, and he could describe trees and flowers and the wonders of the ocean in the most beautiful language."
-– Earl Conrad, journalist with Flynn’s autobiography

"Errol had the capacity to make everything an adventure - Even a quiet stroll through a simple country lane came alive either through a quick remembrance or a philosophical thought or a simple observation of the ecological patterns of the earth trees and flowers and their support system. His was a mind relentlessly searching."
-– Patrice Flynn, wife

"He was a bit of a sadistic devil, was Errol, but it was done with such charm and sense of mischief that he was always forgiven."
-– Stewart Granger

"He was one of the wild characters of the world, but he also had a strange, quiet side. He camouflaged himself completely. In all the years I knew him, I never knew what really lay underneath, and I doubt if many people did."
-– Ann Sheridan, actress

"He had the charm of a mischievous small boy, humorous and impossible to dislike."
-– Arthur Hiller, director

"I loved him anyway and he was, as everyone suspected, an endearing rascal."
-– First wife Lili Damita

"He was an enchanting creature. I had more fun with Errol than everybody else put together…It was never ending fun."
-– David Niven, friend and actor

"The only time he wasn’t living was when he was asleep, and even then I think he dreamt well."
-– Second wife Nora Haymes

"I think Errol was a good actor, and there are not many who can do what he did. Not every actor can be a swashbuckler."
-– Vincent Sherman