There is nothing new in art except talent.
—Anton Chekhov
There are wonderful things in real jazz, the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.
—Henri Matisse
Decisions are made by people who have time, not people who have talent.
—Scott Adams
It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.
—Robert Benchley
I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in the chemistry department. And I wrote some good stuff. If I had been in the English department, the prof would have looked at my short stories, congratulated me on my talent, and then showed me how Joyce or Hemingway handled the same elements of the short story. The prof would have placed me in competition with the greatest writers of all time, and that would have ended my writing career.
—Kurt Vonnegut