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Talent Quotes

On gifts, hard-won skill, and where talent gets spent.

These quotes treat talent as both a private gift and a public resource, one dancer describing ballet as a sacred calling, another noting how so much top talent flows into finance and law instead of helping marginalized children. See Best quotes for related themes.

Rock music is predictable, unless there's great talent involved.

Quotes by Zubin Mehta

There are actors who spend 20 years working and still don't achieve what I've achieved so quickly. So I think my only course of action is to work as hard as I can, not just for the sake of the...

Quotes by Zhang Ziyi

Acting is equal parts talent and perseverance.

Quotes by Zach McGowan

I was young and so eager to make some money as well as get exposed and show my talent.

Quotes by Young Buck

When I paint, some things come out, and I don't know. Maybe it's because I have such talent as a painter.

Quotes by Yayoi Kusama

Can you imagine what it would be like if all the Aussie film talent was able to make Australian stories?

Quotes by Yahoo Serious

Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.

Quotes by Wynton Marsalis

I used to enjoy watching Ronald Koeman, even though he didn't play in my position. I loved the way he hit the ball, the talent he had to position himself.

Quotes by Xabi Alonso

There are two types of football - there's physical football and football talent.

Quotes by Xavi

The most sought-after candidates in the world today by companies like mine are people who make computer software - there's a shortage of talent.

Quotes by Xavier Niel

The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don't have.

Quotes by Woody Allen

Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.

Quotes by Wislawa Szymborska

Talent! There's no such thing as talent. What they call talent is nothing but the capacity for doing continuous hard work in the right way.

Quotes by Winslow Homer

I feel the producers really exploited my lack of talent at this time. I looked like an idiot up there. I want to be good, not something that people will laugh at.

Quotes by William Hung

Tact is one of the first mental virtues, the absence of it is fatal to the best talent.

Quotes by William Gilmore Simms

Having worked at four separate Wall Street firms, having seen a variety of talent at those places, and having competed against Goldman as a banker, one thing you have to be struck by is the power of their recruiting.

Quotes by William D. Cohan

My big ears indicated a talent for music. This thrilled me.

Quotes by William Christopher Handy

Men fail much oftener from want of perseverance than from want of talent.

Quotes by William Cobbett

To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent. A reporter can write equally well about everything that is presented to his view, but a creative writer can do his best only with what lies within the range...

Quotes by Willa Cather

All the intelligence and talent in the world can't make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can't be bred in captivity. It is a sport, like the silver fox. It happens.

Quotes by Willa Cather

Frequently Asked Questions

Is talent described as something sacred in these quotes?
Yes — one speaker, reflecting on a career as a ballerina, calls it "a true gift to have this talent and perform these masterworks," describing the whole process as "sacred" and "sublime."
Do these quotes talk about where society's talent tends to go?
One raises a concern about exactly that, noting "we send our top talent into finance, technology, medicine and law - everywhere but towards expanding opportunity for our most marginalized children." For more on using ability to help others, see our Good quotes.
Can talent make something unpredictable or interesting?
According to one quote, yes: "Rock music is predictable, unless there's great talent involved." It suggests real talent is what breaks a genre out of its usual patterns. For more on standout qualities like this, see our Great quotes.
Is economic strength connected to talent in these quotes?
One quote gestures toward that, crediting the U.S. economy's foundation partly to a scientific and skilled base, describing it as "solidly based" in more than just a material sense.
Where can I find more quotes celebrating exceptional ability?
Our Best collection highlights standout qualities, and if you enjoy short reflective lines like these, our Like quotes are worth browsing too.

Others get more specific about craft, arguing that a genre like rock only becomes interesting when real talent is actually involved. Browse Great and Good quotes for more.