Premiere launch of Yannis Flessas’ new book

Politicians, journalists, artists and celebrities speak about the book, namely Yannos Papantoniou, George Romeos, Sophia Voultepsi, Alexandros Velios, Christos Mitsis, Zozo Lidoriki, Nikos Koundouros and Stavros Xarchakos

Mrs Magda Tsegou will be coordinator of the conversation

The actress Hero Mukhiou will read excerpts from the book

A legendary Greek cultural journalist, Yannis Flessas, opened his archives and private collections, and shares with us some of his great interviews, photographs and memories from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.

This is our opportunity to recollect great people and great moments that have made us proud. This book intends to be the best of its kind, enriched with anecdote documents and rare photographs of personalities of international repute. Here’s a glance:

MICHAEL CACOYANNIS: In Greece, you only make a good funeral.

MELINA MERCOURI: The artists are the voice of the people, not clowns!

NIKOS KOUNDOUROS: Although we won lions, we’ll now be eaten by bugs.

THEO ANGELOPOULOS: The darkest hour is the hour before dawn.

DIMITRIS HORN: I didn’t phone Odysseas Elytis to congratulate him for the Nobel Prize.

IANNIS XENAKIS: Religion was one of the major setbacks for Hellenism.

YVES MONTAGNE: Better to be leftwing with Rolls Royce than being a fascist with tanks.

JANE FONDA: You, Greeks, have political consciousness.

RUDOLPH NUREYEV: I have danced Mikis Theodorakis’ music at Covent Garden.

COSTAS AXELOS: Neither God nor Marx. Christianity and Marxism on their last legs.

VANGELIS: My Oscar Award is Greek.

ODYSSEAS ELYTIS: My ambition is to feel as being a book inside youngsters’ bags in times of loneliness. Secret communication is everything.

BOB DYLAN: Ever since Prometheus the artist is a rebel.

IAKOVOS CAMPANELLIS: I find it demeaning that most foreigners know Greece as “Bouzouki music.”

IRENI PAPAS: As great as Katina Paxinou may be, I do not wish to be her.

ELLIE LABETI: The Right? My God, what anachronism!

SUSAN SARANDON: My surname is Greek because in 1967 I married a Greek.

ELIA CAZAN: Yes, during McCarthy era I provided information about leftist and progressive artists to the FBI.

MIKLOS ROZSA: My enthusiasm for Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis is unconditional and my appreciation has always been the deepest.

JOAN BAEZ: I have the obligation to always be at the first line, to fight against violence.

Unique, exciting, touching, erotic, and a life work is Yannis Flessas’ love for film music. Through reading, this vast, unknown world was revealed to me frame by frame as an epic movie.
I would like to thank the author from the depths of my heart for the valuable information gained through his knowledge, and wish him every success on his new book.

I believe one can see how modern and contemporary are always the people of culture; their thoughts and views are of no age, hence they act as a timeless guide to every generation.