Quotes About Talent

If you need drugs to be a good writer, you are not a good writer.

Some people possess talent, others are possessed by it. When that happens, a talent becomes a curse.

Outliers: The Story of Success

I was reminded of the child prodigy who was summoned to perform for a famous pianist. The child climbed into the piano stool and played something by Chopin with great speed and accuracy. When the child had finished, the great musician patted it on the head and said, "You can play the notes. Someday, you may be able to play the music." Puppet

We got two gold-record singers and they don't sing? So? We got five Oscar-winning actors and they don't need to act much.

Poor kid, I thought, to do this to yourself at twenty-three and leave a note that tells me you could have been a writer. I would have liked that for you. I would have liked that very much.

His talent sprang from his unrivaled independence of mind and ability to focus on his work and shut out the world, yet those same qualities exacted a toll.

I never swallowed in its entirety the free-market rhetoric of the Thatcherites. But I deeply sympathized with Thatcher's motives. She wanted the electorate to recognize that the individual's life is his own and the responsibility of living it cannot be borne by anyone else, still less by the state. She hoped to release the talent and enterprise that, notwithstanding decades of egalitarian claptrap, she believed yet to exist in British society. The

Taking for granted the growth of his empire, he hired talented people as found, not as needed.

Rockefeller seemed destined to succeed as much from his fastidious work habits as from innate intelligence.

Pierpont selected partners not by wealth or to fortify the bank's capital but based on brains and talent.

John, I might have known it. You do things better and more easily than anyone else.

Having often hired people based on general ability, not specific skills—Gates himself being a prime example—Rockefeller acceded to the choice.

But I do think that our national leadership consists of too many lawyers and not enough people from business. I'd like to see a system where we brought in twenty top managers to run the business side of the country and maybe even paid them $1 million a year, tax-free. That would be a real incentive, and then we'd see a lot more talented people interested in public life.

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it.

Woody Allen has said, If I wanted to have a weekend of pure pleasure, it would be to have a half-dozen Bob Hope films and watch them, films like Monsieur Beaucaire and My Favorite Brunette. It's not for nothing that he's such a greatly accepted comedian. He is a great, great talent. Despite this praise from a celebrated contemporary funnyman, there is a tendency to take Bob Hope's films for granted.

We miss the effects of randomness in life because when we assess the world, we tend to see what we expect to see. We in effect define degree of talent by degree of success and then reinforce our feelings of causality by noting the correlation. That's why although there is sometimes little difference in ability between a wildly successful person and one who is not as successful, there is usually a big difference in how they are viewed.

recent years psychologists have found that the ability to persist in the face of obstacles is at least as important a factor in success as talent.

We are inclined, that is, to see movie stars as more talented than aspiring movie stars and to think that the richest people in the world must also be the smartest.

We miss the effects of randomness in life because when we assess the world, we tend to see what we expect to see. We in effect define degree of talent by degree of success and then reinforce our feelings of causality by noting the correlation.

In the early days all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there's no real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities.

The only thing I'm trying to steal is your heart, doll." Sam smirked. "You're not that talented a thief, Sam Lloyd.

No woman who builds a career on hard work and talent will ever compliment a much younger one who uses the shallow gift of her looks.