Dave Barry Quotes

Most of the characteristics which make for success in writing are precisely those which we are all taught to repress ... the firm belief that you are an important person, that you are a lot smarter than most people, and that your ideas are so damned important that everybody should listen to you.

I usually have poor to absent relations with editors because they have a habit of desiring changes and I resist changes.

It's okay to be confident, but not arrogant.

It's a fine line between self-assuredness and arrogance.

I don't feel like there is anybody out there with more confidence than me.

I wouldn't necessarily say I'm arrogant. I'm just confident.

I have great judgment. I have good judgment. I know what's going on.

Dealing with the old school rappers, you see a lot of humility. When you're new, nothing is wrong. Everything is tight. Because you're trying to hype the world into believing in you.

I know what is going on," said Sir. "I am the Boss! Of course I know!

I come out of journalism, and then book writing. There, it's just you and your editor and maybe a copy desk, looking over your editor's shoulder, and that's the story. It's right there. I can show it to you because it's on paper.

I've been told I have the biggest ego in the world and that it manifests itself when you come to me and say, 'I don't like this' or 'I want a change'... and that I relish that because my ego's so big I think I can solve whatever you throw at me and make it even better. I enjoy the interaction and the challenge.

I can come off as pretty arrogant, but it's because I know I'm right.

Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counselling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, 'How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?' and avoid 'How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?'

You lose the arrogance you need to be successful, but you need that arrogance because the second someone sees that side of you and chip at it, it's over.

A man who is a genius and doesn't know it, probably isn't.

Confidence, not cockiness. Knowing who you are is confidence. Cockiness is knowing who you are and pushing it down everyone's throat.

I know I'm the most influential.

Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.

Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open - to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Self-confident people aren't afraid to have their views challenged. They relish the intellectual combat that enriches ideas.

Cuz if I don't say I'm the best, tell me who the hell will.

As a director, I know everybody's job, and I know how to do it. I can smell bullshit when someone's telling me it can't be done, because I've seen it done a hundred thousand times.

I just think that when my confidence meets other people's insecurity, that equals Kanye's arrogant.

All pride is willing pride.

Authors who moan with praise for their editors always seem to reek slightly of the Stockholm syndrome.

I don't make a lot of mistakes, because it's hard for me to be wrong