I believe that every one of us has a gift. And I believe that mine is the ability to take the complex and make it simple.

Movies are not novels, and that’s why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost always failure. It can’t be done.

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.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple.

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

Everybody’s got that split between the beautiful and fragile, the hard and the dark.

The two things in the world we all share in this world are laughter and pain. We’ve all got problems. The levels of those problems vary, but we’ve all got problems. When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that’s a gift – to you and your audience.

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.

I’m not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.

Cause I’m a musician, I’m not really good at posing and being a model, like, modeling.

With drive and a bit of talent, you can move mountains. I know. I’ve done it.

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.‘

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.

The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

Understand: any phenomenon in the world is by nature complex. The people you deal with are equally complex. Any action sets off a limitless chain of reactions. It is never so simple as A leads to B. B will lead to C, D and beyond.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

If you’re a human being, you can attempt to do what other human beings have done. We don’t understand talent any more than we understand electricity.

My name is Adam Sandler. I’m not particularly talented. I’m not particularly good-looking. And yet I’m a multi-millionaire.

When you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

I am very happy playing and showing off my talent on the cricket field and have no plans to enter Bollywood.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo’s sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey’s angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.

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

The greatest progress is in the sciences that study the simplest systems. So take, say, physics – greatest progress there. But one of the reasons is that the physicists have an advantage that no other branch of sciences has. If something gets too complicated, they hand it to someone else.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‚Thus far and no farther.‘

If I had any talent that God could give me, I would be a great diva.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‚I used everything you gave me‘.

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.

Talent without working hard is nothing.

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

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

If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn’t have been worth the Nobel Prize.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

I believe that every person is born with talent.

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

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.

When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born.

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

If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer.

If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.

Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.

Some formulas are too complex and I don’t want anything to do with them.

I think people inspire me the most. If I meet a person who is incredibly complex, and all of a sudden, I start thinking in rhymes, that person could be a muse.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

I can hold my own when it comes to burping. I’ve got a good feeling that I could win a championship.

Maleficent has suffered abuse in the past, and there’s a reason why she is now as furious as she is. And I think that children who have been outcast and abused in any way will relate to her. There’s a beautiful side to her; she’s not just a dark person. She has all these facets. And that is interesting.

Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.

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.

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

There’s no better place in the world for technology start-ups than Silicon Valley; there’s such an incredible well of talent and capital and resources. The whole system is set up to foster the creation of new companies.

What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.

Genius, when young, is divine.

Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he’s terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he’s a terrific actor.

The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you’re opposed to it. But when you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

I get impatient with people working on a film that have their head in their hands like it’s the most complicated thing in the world.