Djuna Barnes Quotes

It's well known that actors are lousy writers.

Will you tell me, 'Oh, painting is a special art, whereas anyone can write prose passably well'? Can he, indeed? ... Can you, sir? Nay, believe me, you are either an archangel or a very bourgeois gentleman indeed if you admit to having spoken English prose all your life without knowing it.

I think that there has been a slow recognition that there's a mind at work here, and there's a skill and some bit of artistry, and that I could probably do other things. Otherwise, I don't know that I would've been given the opportunity to do Paris, Je T'Aime.

Creation is a knack which is empowered by practice, and like almost any skill, it is lost if you don't practice it.

I'm very comfortable writing.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

Real seriousness in regard to writing being one of the two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent.

Jackson [Rathbone] is the most artsy, creative and, I think, the most talented.

I don't think artists are made, I think they're born.

There is so much talent in Australia.

My father was a painter and he taught art. He once said to me, 'I never knew an Indian child who could not draw.'

I get my flow from Daddy, my singing ability from Mommy, the camera stuff from both. That's just what happens when you hang out with the Smiths.

When I was a little kid, no matter what my parents told me, I would always argue - even if I agreed with them. And I've always been a show-off. As I've gotten older, I've found ways to be more subtle about it, but that's the way I am. I suppose that has something to do with why I write and direct.

Imagination is not the exclusive appanage of artists, but belongs in varying degrees to all men.

I can act... I do a little writing as well. And I'm good at typing. I'm a creative typist, actually.

I have nothing to declare except my genius.

I can draw and paint in many different styles, and use different mediums to create work.

Cheryl's artistically inclined. She draws and sketches, but I don't know about acting.

My performances speak for themselves.

It's a bit bold to go around saying, 'Prime Minister, if there's an opportunity I really want to be in this department,' but that's what I did.

Since I liked to draw, I entered a design-oriented high school.

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

If you asked someone, 'Can you play the violin?' and he says, 'I don't know, I have not tried, perhaps I can,' you laugh at him. Whereas about writing, people always say: 'I don't know, I have not tried,' as though one had only to try and one would become a writer.

Genius gives birth, talent delivers.

You can be a hunchback and a dwarf and what-all. If you write beautifully, you can write beautifully.