I’m trying to do what Eddie Murphy did for his generation. You have to show people, ‚I’m different. I’m not just a comedian.‘ I’m trying to become a rock star.

The most talented do not always end up as celebrities, and those with less talent often do. Upsets are written into our history and occur around us every day.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

The greatest thing about being a comedian is knowing other comedians. And you get to talk to them. Its the most fun.

Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.

I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

I’m much more comfortable and confident running out on the field in front of 70,000 people instead of standing in front of a camera trying to say some lines. The people who do that as a profession are very talented because it’s certainly not easy.

Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

You know, God gave me a gift to do other things besides play the game of basketball.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

In my view, the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience.

I knew that I was ‚interesting‘ at 18 because I was aware that I could get away with doing things on stage.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

If I had to choose a superhero to be, I would pick Superman. He’s everything that I’m not.

It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.

The quote-unquote ‚description‘ of a leading man was once your tall, handsome man with the build of whatever, almost a trophy to some degree. I think now it’s about making a leading man what you want a leading man to be. In this day, you can’t deny talent. You look at Jonah Hill, you look at Zach Galifianakis, you look at myself.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

The men who followed Him were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pele.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they’re stuck in that safe place.

The whole slacker generation totally didn’t apply to us musically.

Like a baseball game, wars are not over till they are over. Wars don’t run on a clock like football. No previous generation was so hopelessly unrealistic that this had to be explained to them.

He had a massive stroke. He died with his tie on. Do you think that could be our generation’s equivalent of that old saying about dying with your boots on?

Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.

We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest of that ship.

And although our bodies are bounded with skin, and we can differentiate between outside and inside, they cannot exist except in a certain kind of natural environment.

But, you know, you can’t be a star at home.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off – we do not have to stand for this.

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

I want to thank God, obviously for the health, for the talent He’s given me, for my family who supports me, for the things that basketball’s taught me on and off the court. For the people that I’ve been able to meet through the game of basketball.

There are some singers that know exactly when to go, and others hang on much too long and that is the same, that is the same with judges.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Talent is something that comes from within; it has nothing to do with age.

Mother Earth is very talented. She has produced Buddhas, bodhisattvas, great beings.

Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.

At the end of the day, I want to be part of the same conversation as Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

I think all those actors from that generation, like Bogart – they were wonderful actors. They didn’t act. They just came on and they did it, and the characters were wonderful.

To be honest, I never really considered myself to be too much of an actress. So, whenever I get the chance to do music, I’m always, like, just in it. It’s like, ‚Oh my God, I finally get to do this. I’m so happy.‘

I’ve been in the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus since I was 8.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

One is lucky to be born in a place where no one is doing it, because then you can say, ‚Well, obviously I can write better than everyone else in high school.‘ You have no idea of the competition.

Now I realize that from ’72 through to about ’76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star.

When I was on TV in the ’80s, I wasn’t thinking, ‚There’s a 10-year-old kid watching this and in 15 years, he’s gonna be doing stuff that was influenced by me.‘ I was trying to get my five minutes together. So now that those people are comedians and they’re influenced by me – it’s bizarre.

Above everything else I’ve done, I’ve always said I’ve had more guts than I’ve got talent.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.