Kerry James Marshall Quotes

I certainly am one of those people who is incredibly privileged to have an art career, which happened out of luck. Then luck kept happening. Besides that, things just move along in their own weird way.

I feel like I have just been really, really lucky to meet some of the most successful and great actors alive today.

A project like 'Rizzoli & Isles' is something you can't pursue. It's something that comes to you... I like to call it 'fairy dust.' And it happened without my having to do anything.

There was a teacher who recognized that I was interested in cartooning and he was great.

There's very few geniuses that come and revolutionize everything. For the rest of us that want to be artists and have something to say, it's a lot of work and a lot of luck.

It looks like I've been smart about it, but truly, I've been incredibly lucky to have the right people notice me and want to work with me.

In my life, there have always been people who guided my path, towards the school, towards this company. I didn't know about any of it. I didn't have a plan. It's good fortune and generosity from other people that have given me all I have today.

I think there's a million talented people out there, it's just a matter of luck a lot of the time.

I didn't have to struggle at all to get an agent and a publisher. Everything fell into my lap.

Writing can be taken up at any point. But you need to remember that the arts are fundamentally unfair. Hard work and diligence won't necessarily take you all the way. Talent, nepotism, influence, and pure luck play a huge part.

I really feel very blessed, and I don't forget it, either; there's an awful lot of wonderful talent in this world, and I just seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Certain people get an opportunity because they happen to be in the right place at the right time. It has no bearing on their talent. I don't think we should look at it and feel bitter about it. That's the way the cookie crumbles in all professions.

Well, I was lucky to have people throughout my life who invested in me.

I just think I got lucky. Every step of the way, I've gotten lucky with everything I've gotten to do and be a part of.

Oh yeah, I'm the president of the lucky club. There are so many talented people who don't work. And the crop of young actors I'm surrounded by is incredible. When you have people like that around you it amps you up a little bit. Also, Emile Hirsch and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or guys like Ryan Gosling. It's a really good crowd and I feel I'm coming up at a good time. But equally, there's a lot of good young actors who don't get to work who are more talented than I. I'm just lucky.

I want to get to a point in my career where I can be a role model. A good one. I want to say, 'I got here without drugs, and I got here without drinking or smoking. If I can do it, you can do it. I have no doubt.' I really want kids to have a chance in life.

I'm just a girl from Harlem who ended up in the right place at the right time.

Just in terms of the opportunity I've gotten is amazing. I consider myself super, super, super lucky.

I just started writing for my own amusement and occasionally singing in little clubs around Los Angeles. Then I wrote 'The Rose,' and through a series of divine things that I had no control over and had no idea were going to happen, it got in the movie, and that changed everything.

With Sumthin Else Music Works, I wanted to spread the love and give newcomers a chance to make it because something that really helped me were all the people who had given me an opportunity when I was putting my career together.

To live as an artist requires hard work or some extraordinary good fortune to come your way.

There are lots of actors out there who are hugely, hugely talented and haven't got the breaks I've had.

Every song I've written is luck, I think; it's luck - 'How did that just happen?'

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

To me, it's just like, if you have talent, and you're lucky enough to find where you fit, and you work with the right people, it's not exalted at all.