Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
I've always said that the word 'genius,' especially in Hollywood, is way overused.
I cherish the ballets made for myself by Mr. Balanchine. He never lost his temper. He was quiet, humble, the genius of the 20th century.
Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.
I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.
Creative genius is a divinely bestowed gift which is the coronation of the few.
I truly miss the genius of the music of John Lennon, as I'm sure everybody does.
Robert Burns enriched Scottish song with his genius and is mainly responsible for the rich treasure house of song that we enjoy today. He collected folk songs, retained the melodic line, kept what words were usable and rewrote the rest. He didn't claim ownership.
There's something very funny about giving a menial task to a genius and watching him find so much complexity and overanalyse it to such a degree that the waitress from Nebraska working at the Cheesecake Factory has passed them all by.
I am not a genius. But I am nerdy.
To understand Mozart's contradictory qualities would indeed be to understand genius.
Genius is a promontory jutting out into the infinite.
The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him as one of themselves - the creature of habits and infirmities.
Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.
Lars Von Trier is a genius. Every film he makes is so honest and powerful.
As a bull market continues, almost anything you buy goes up. It makes you feel that investing in stocks is a very easy and safe and that you're a financial genius.
You don't have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream.
The policeman must be a minister, a social worker, a diplomat, a tough guy, and a gentleman. And, of course, he'd have to be a genius... For he will have to feed a family on a policeman's salary.
I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.
In Goodfellas they have this one scene where the camera goes down some steps and walks through a kitchen into a restaurant and the critics were all over this as evidence of the genius of Scorsese and Scorsese is a genius.
There are so many cliches associated with mental health - such as the 'fine line between lunacy and genius' - which are, on the whole, a load of rubbish.
Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.
A man possesses talent; genius possesses the man.
Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.
Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.
Love can reach the same level of talent, and even genius, as the discovery of differential calculus.
I think Stephen Sondheim is a - and I hardly ever use this word - but this is as close as it gets to a genius.
Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
'Mad Men' still lives in my life as the best job that I've ever had because I thought the character was genius. It was so well-written.
You have plausible deniability, as they say in politics, as an author with movies. Because if the movie is terrible, you simply say they failed to catch the genius of the book.
I'm a huge Muppets fan. Gigantic. I think they're genius. I think they're some of the best work out there and completely underrated, just because of how genius they are. I love that kind of humor. It's so innocent but brilliant.
The guy that I worked on 'Thriller ' was a genius and he was 20 years old, but it was like working with a gifted 10-year-old. The guy who I worked on with 'Black Or White' was crazy. Michael had gone mad.
Many men of genius must arise before a particular man of genius can appear.
Genius is immediate, but talent takes time.
A genius is one who can do anything except make a living.
While the world may feel entitled and have the power to pronounce an individual crazy, are there times when the innocent genius, the insightful individual or just the old grandmother may reasonably declare the world to be mad? Probably, but what hope or happiness would such an individual have?
