- John Lurie: When my brother Evan was a kid, he would be a character. When he was like three, four, five, he would be Rin-Tin-Tin for a week. He would demand to have his food served to him... on the floor in a bowl... and my parents...
- [chuckles]
- John Lurie: ... went along with it, and would, "Rin-Tin-Tin, it's time for dinner," and he would come and eat on the floor. And... there was about a week where he was Mighty Mouse, and he would just be flying around the house with his cape on, just woosh, there goes Evan. And my father was waiting on this important phone call, and it... there was something terrible about it. He had that thing where he was beholden to this guy who was supposed to call him. It was about a job or something. I was six, five, you know, so I don't really know. I just remember being... not liking this thing. It was like my father was waiting for this guy to call him and he's not calling him, and it's like this guy has power over my dad. So whatever it was, it's just like, I didn't like it. And, um... You know, it's 1958, '59, something like that, and so we've got the, you know, we've got the phone on the wall, and it never rings because nobody else has a phone, and if your phone rings it's a big deal. And my father's waiting on this phone call, and, uh... the phone rings... and Evan comes flying through the kitchen in his cape and answers the phone. "Hello!" And then there's a pause, and the he goes, "No, this is Mighty Mouse!" And then he hangs up the phone. And I'm like, "Oh, Evan, what did you do? You can't do that." But the amazing thing was my parents did not scold him. They weren't mad at him... because Evan being Mighty Mouse was more important than the phone call, and that's huge to me. Thank you for stopping by.
- John Lurie: Bob Ross was wrong. Everybody can't paint. It's not true. So... it's very optimistic to think everybody can. I think that everybody can paint when they're young. In fact most of the best painting I've ever seen were put on the refrigerator with a magnet. And I think most of us, maybe all of us, when we're three, four, five, six, seven we can all... we're all artists, we all have that thing. And in a lot of people it gets pounded out of you, or you, you know, the adult part of your mind tells you to drop that, which might be the way to go. I don't know. I know that my parents did something with me and my brother and sister that... that nurtured that thing, that kept it alive, that protected it, that made us go into our adult life... with both music, and my sister dances, and... and... and in painting to keep that sort of child-like wonderment thing. And... I think it's really important. I mean... in my case they may have gone to far and, uh, I'm still searching for my inner adult.
- John Lurie: [scene change outdoors] Pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah
- John Lurie: [scene change return] But... I could never quite figure out how they did it.
- John Lurie: Now what am I gonna do? Say, "Hello, welcome to Painting with John," and then do a polite smile?
- John Lurie: Hello, and welcome to Painting with John.
- John Lurie: My polite smile is terrible.
- John Lurie: Hello, and welcome to Painting with John.
- John Lurie: My polite smile frightens people.
- John Lurie: Hello, and welcome to Painting with John.
- John Lurie: I will use somebody's laugh to gauge if I trust them or not. I don't trust somebody until I hear their laugh and know that it's, like, a full, real laugh. Somebody that doesn't laugh right. I don't trust them. Something blocking their soul.
- John Lurie: In Thailand you hear this laughter just floating through the air. It's just so... it can be just so beautiful. They have a thing called 'sonook' there, which... they translate it as 'fun,' but it's not really 'fun.' 'Fun' isn't right. But you hear these laughs just go floating through the air, just makes your heart go, "Yeah, this is life." Or in Africa, you here these laughs that come from down, deep in the belly, these booming, big, wonderful, roaring laughs. Just nice, man. Makes me happy to hear it.
- John Lurie: And then in the expensive restaurants in New York, you hear these cackles that come from way up in the throat, the neck up. They're... they're painful. Makes you sorry for these people. Somebody should come and teach them how to laugh, because... And if there's a group of them, they're just emboldened by numbers and they just go...
- [fake laughs]
- John Lurie: Oh, that was funny.
- [fake laughs]
- John Lurie: And you just wonder how the fuck do they have sex, like...
- [fake laughs]
- John Lurie: Just terrible, but uh... Yeah, man, I don't know. You just wonder who the rich people are, the people who can afford the fancy restaurant, but can't laugh, or the people who can laugh and you just have having rice and a little piece of fish for dinner. They're the rich people in my book.