Untalented Quotes

• Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

  Al Capp

  Sarcastic, Art, Architecture

  In National Observer 1 July 1963

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• One is born to be a dancer. No teacher can work miracles, nor will years of training make a good dancer of an untalented pupil. One may be able to acquire a certain technical facility, but no one can ever 'acquire an exceptional talent.' I have never prided myself on having an unusually gifted pupil. A Pavlova is no one's pupil but God's.

  George Balanchine

  Dance, Teacher, Years

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• I think being an actress is more how to cope with the fact that you can't do anything else than to express a talent. It's a way of being untalented for anything

  Isabelle Huppert

  Thinking, Way, Facts

  Interview with Christopher Cook, www.theguardian.com. November 11, 2001.

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• There is no idea so brilliant or original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can't screw it up.

  Raymond E. Feist

  Writing, Ideas, Brilliant

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• Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.

  Eric Hoffer

  Tinkering, Matter, Chance

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does.

  Tony Wilson

  Listening, Musician, Doe

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• In our age, if a boy or girl is untalented, the odds are in favor of their thinking they want to write.

  Theodore Roethke

  Girl, Writing, Boys

  Theodore Roethke, Carolyn Kizer (2013). “On Poetry and Craft: Selected Prose”, p.89, Copper Canyon Press

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• For half a century photography has been the "art form" of the untalented. Obviously some pictures are more satisfactory than others, but where is credit due? To the designer of the camera? to the finger on the button? to the law of averages?

  Gore Vidal

  Photography, Art, Law

  Gore Vidal (1982). “The second American revolution and other essays (1976-1982)”, Random House Inc

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• The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving than in one where opportunities are abundant. In an affluent society, the alienated who clamor for power are largely untalented people who cannot make use of the unprecedented opportunities for self-realization, and cannot escape the confrontation with an ineffectual self.

  Eric Hoffer

  Opportunity, Self, People

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• There are no musically untalented people.

  Igor Levit

  People

  "The Audience is Present". Interview with Haley Weiss, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 9, 2015.

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• I've worked with some very good directors and some very bad ones. I learned a great deal from both. From the bad, untalented people, you learn what not to do. And when you work with very highly talented people, you want to emulate them.

  Tommy Lee Jones

  People, Directors, Want

  "Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank Talk THE HOMESMAN, the Shorthand They Developed on Set, Jones as a Director, Swank’s Singing and More". Interview, collider.com. November 13, 2014.

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• My father always said excuses are the crutches for the untalented.

  Ken Venturi

  Father, Excuse, Crutches

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• I wanted to be an actor from a young age, but actually becoming one and seen the ugly side of the world does feel different and sometimes unwelcome. There are shallow, vapid, untalented people zombieing the streets of Hollywood, adding decadence and immorality to an already extravagant business.

  Fran Kranz

  Becoming One, People, Age

  "Interview with Fran Kranz, Star, CBS’s Welcome to the Captain". Interview with Alex Remington, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 5, 2008.

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• It is only the untalented director who imagines him or herself in every part, wants his or her own thoughts and emotions portrayed; it is only the untalented who make their own limitations those of the actors as well.

  Liv Ullmann

  Art, Directors, Actors

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• I hate the word starchitect. Stuff like that comes from mean-spirited, untalented journalists. It's demeaning.

  Frank Gehry

  Hate, Mean, Stuff

  Source: www.playboy.com

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• Common criticism of the Internet is that it is dominated by the crude, the uninformed, the immature, the smug, the untalented, the repetitious, the pathetic, the hostile, the deluded, the sefl-righteous, and the shrill. This criticism overlooks the fact that the Internet also offers - for the savvy individual who knows where to look - the tasteless and borderline insane.

  Dave Barry

  Immature, Criticism, Insane

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• There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.

  William Friedkin

  People, Dollars, Film

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• In an adequate social order, the untalented should be able to acquire a sense of usefulness and of growth without interfering with the development of talent around them

  Eric Hoffer

  Order, Growth, Development

  Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

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• Religion itself is without genius. There is no religious genius and no one would be permitted to distinguish between the talented and the untalented in religion.

  Max Stirner

  Religious, Would Be, Genius

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• I may not be Meryl Streep, but I am not untalented.

  Mili Avital

  May, I May Not Be

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I fight cynicism. It`s too easy. It`s really boring. It`s much harder to be positive and see the wonder of everything. Cynicism is a bunch of people who aren`t as talented as other people, knocking them because they make them feel even more untalented.

  Ewan McGregor

  Fighting, People, Being Positive

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• [Cultural relativism] licenses the envy of the untalented, giving rise to what has been called the revenge of failure: Those who cannot paint destroy the canons of painting; those who cannot write reject canonical literature.

  George Will

  Revenge, Writing, Giving

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• When you're a student of poetry, you're lucky if you don't realize how untalented you are until you get a little better. Otherwise, you would just stop.

  Tony Hoagland

  Lucky, Littles, Students

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• If it wasn't so pointless and ridiculous, it would be more humiliating. Also, if there [Hollywood] weren't so many people as bad as myself - equally untalented people - it would be even more humiliating.

  Norm MacDonald

  People, Hollywood, Would Be

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Your career and your passion don't always match up. Plenty of talented people don't have the careers they want. Plenty of untalented people make millions and make movies. There is a difference between determination and talent.

  Amy Poehler

  Determination, Passion, Differences

  Amy Poehler (2014). “Yes Please”, p.168, Pan Macmillan

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