Tallulah Bankhead Quotes

A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possesses at least two things besides: gratitude and purity.

I think Yelena Akhtiorskaya is a genius. What she manages to do, linguistically and emotionally, in the span of a single sentence, is astonishing.

Beerbohm was a genius of the purest kind. He stands at the summit of his art.

A John Updike is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, if that generation is lucky: so comfortable in so many genres, the same lively, generous intelligence suffusing all he did.

Genius is an overused word. The world has known only about a half dozen geniuses. I got only fairly near.

Talent is some one faculty unusually developed; genius commands all the faculties.

For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius!

There are only one or two geniuses every century.

Among the English authors, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch the weak, superstitious part of his readers' imagination, and made him capable of succeeding where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius.

when you think you've got hold of a genius ... you can't be sure whether it's a spark of the divine fire or a mere flash in the pan.

I don't use the word lightly, in fact, I don't use it at all, but Ben Marcus is a genius, one of the most daring, funny, morally engaged and brilliant writers, someone whose work truly makes a difference in the world. His prose is, for me, awareness objectified-he makes the word new and thus the world.

The very greatest genius, after all, is not the greatest thing in the world, any more than the greatest city in the world is the country or the sky. It is the concentration of some of its greatest powers, but it is not the greatest diffusion of its might. It is not the habit of its success, the stability of its sereneness.

There is the same difference between talent and genius that there is between a stone mason and a sculptor

Since that day, when people have spoken to me of "genius", I have felt the inside pocket to make sure my wallet's still there.

It is impossible that a genius - at least a literary genius - can ever be discovered by his intimates; they are so close to him that he is out of focus to them and they can't get at his proportions; they can't perceive that there is any considerable difference between his bulk and their own.

Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellences which are put of the reach of the rules of art: a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire.

For a genius to be a genius, he must have a selfless slave between himself and the world.

Works of genius are the first things in the world.

I think that Shakespeare is a s***. Absolute s***! He may have been a genius for his time, but I just can't relate to that stuff. "Thee and thous" - the guy sounds like a faggot.

Even the people who have it do not definitely know what genius is.

I just finished Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad," which I think is a work of genius.

Sanctity and genius are as rebellious as vice.

We can say of Shakespeare, that never has a man turned so little knowledge to such great account.

I will write a book one day about how I feel about every aspect of Emily Stone. She's a full genius. She has found her genius and is giving it all so fully and beautifully. I think everyone who works with her, brushes shoulders with her, or even makes eye contact with her, gets a shot of sunshine.

Talent wears well, genius wears itself out; talent drives a snug brougham in fact; genius, a sun-chariot in fancy.