Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.
James A. Baldwin

Those who are blessed with the most talent don't necessarily outperform everyone else. It's the people with follow-through who excel.
Mary Kay Ash

Ed Sullivan will be around as long as someone else has talent.
Fred Allen

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.
Aldous Huxley

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Calvin Coolidge

I would say that music is the easiest means in which to express, but since words are my talent, I must try to express clumsily in words what the pure music would have done better.
William Faulkner

If you've got a talent, protect it.
Jim Carrey

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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

I don't want my body to be a distraction from my talent or my brain.
Shania Twain

The winner's edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner's edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success.
Denis Waitley

Talent alone won't make you a success. Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready. The most important question is: "Are your ready?"
Johnny Carson

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
Eric Hoffer

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
Eric Hoffer

My bad habits aren't my title. My strengths and my talent are my title.
Layne Staley

People often remark that I'm pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it.
Frank Sinatra

There is no such thing as talent. There is pressure.
Alfred Adler

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

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

However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
Jean Jacques Rousseau