We live in a culture that venerates scores. We affix numbers to how much fat is in our mochachinos, how quickly our telephones suck information from the air, how much pain we’re in. Reading, too, has become a skill to quantifiably assess.
Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.
With a book, you’re guaranteed the audience has a certain skill level and that the audience has to make an ongoing effort to consume this product and that the project is being consumed by just one person at a time. I really want to play to that strength because it’s one of the few advantages books still have.
Bowling was my natural skill. I didn’t know how I was doing it, but I was spinning it miles and bamboozling people.
The one thing I do know is that I’m the best Taylor Hawkins drummer there is, and that is all I can hope to be. And when it comes to music, musicianship and skill, there is no such thing as better or worse because so much is personal opinion, and I can see that now.
I think, as a rookie, what guys need to be judged on most coming in the league is feel. Not skill, not shooting, not stats, not even passing, but that feel for the game, the ability to read situations and make the right play.
If you’ve been told all your life that you’re good-looking, people just flock around you and you never really have to try or have to learn an interesting craft, skill or hobby – or even have depth.
‘Tis skill, not strength, that governs a ship.
Excellence is not a skill, it’s an attitude.
Trussing a chicken is something we consider a very basic skill. From your college years to any kitchen, you should learn it. I mean if you buy a chicken from Tesco it is all tied up, so you should know what it looks like. If you don’t it is a bit of a worry.
It’s going to sound ridiculous, but knowing how to pose, how to maintain a level of engagement and variation for a day of shooting, is actually a skill.
If you are a singer and you lose your voice, you realize that you have other skill sets when that is taken out of the equation.
Auditioning is a skill. There are actors who are not very talented but know how to audition and know how to be really confident in the room and are confident enough to be able to charm the pants off anybody.
Sometimes, when it comes to multiple-weight world champions, they have so much skill that it eliminates the excitement out of the fights.
One of the advantages of going to a small school is that you’re expected to be the man. They have to give you the ball, and there’s more room for error in a situation where you can play your way through mistakes (and no matter how good you are, this is a valuable coping skill at the NBA level).
Actors have this amazing skill – we bond quite quickly but equally we move on quite quickly. There’s nothing particularly cold or capricious about it – we’re troubadours and lead a troubadour’s lifestyle.
Your law may be perfect, your knowledge of human affairs may be such as to enable you to apply it with wisdom and skill, and yet without individual acquaintance with men, their haunts and habits, the pursuit of the profession becomes difficult, slow, and expensive.
When you come into the food industry from the ‘Bake Off,’ you’re very much at the lower end of the food chain, if you’ll excuse the pun. In the industry, you have to get the experience, you have to learn the skill. As a home baker – that’s how you win the competition – you aren’t a professional.
Living with anyone for many years takes skill. To keep peace in the household, couples learn to adapt to one another, hopefully in positive ways.
Being shocking and cruel is a commerce. It’s an actual valued skill now. The thing that really annoys me, the perception of it is that it takes intelligence, and it doesn’t.
There is always a point when one senses one’s lack of skill, the doubt.
Footballers’ ‘lack of loyalty,’ for instance, is not an indication of players’ moral delinquency. Instead, the capacity to move on quickly without forming lasting attachments is a skill that the contemporary capitalist world inculcates and relies upon.
Skill at helping people grow spiritually, like skill at playing chess, depends on understanding and valuing differences.
Education can give you a skill, but a liberal education can give you dignity.
Eggs are one of my all-time favorite foods, and making the over-easy egg is a test of skill.
To the soldier, luck is merely another word for skill.
Most writers have no idea how to make a film. It’s a totally different skill set. Nor is it just to translate exactly what’s on the page directly on to the screen – because that would be terrible. It would be five hours long, and the structure would be a mess. But the writers know the characters and the story.
We learn differently as children than as adults. For grown-ups, learning a new skill is painful, attention-demanding, and slow. Children learn unconsciously and effortlessly.
Rigondeaux is a high-class boxer. He is smart, has speed and skill.
Television is a completely 1,000 percent different skill set than being on stage.
As with any skill, you have to work at leadership. Watch how the best do it, review what you’ve done, and look at what you might do.
George Bush has shown great skill at disguising an incredibly weak foreign policy.
Commercial cinema is necessary to get money, but to get respect, it’s necessary to keep coming up with good content and giving a chance to the talent whose craft and skill is immaculate.
As you move through the application process, keep refining the way you present yourself. Like any skill, you’ll only get better with practice, and you’ll only hurt yourself if you get discouraged too early. This is one race that’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint.
I was always wrapped around music being a tradition, a skill.
I always think of myself as a comedy feeder type person, and that feeder lets themselves get out of your comfort zone as opposed to straight stand up; that feels like honing one skill, like honing one point of view.
Truth is, every writer has to be a good editor, and you have to edit yourself. It’s a skill every writer has to acquire.
Having a skill makes you undeniable.
When you combine something to say with the skill to say it properly, then you’ve got a good writer.
The bowlers I respected or feared or rated were not the ones who gave me lip or stared at me or abused me. More the ones who, at any stage of the game, when had they had the ball in hand, they were going to be at me, and they were going to have the skill and the fitness and the ability to be aggressive.
In high school, my English teacher Celeste McMenamin introduced me to the great novels and Shakespeare and taught me how to write. Essays, poetry, critical analysis. Writing is a skill that was painful then but a love of mine now.
There was an opening in the ER program at King Drew, so I spent the next month there, fascinated with the range of pathology that I observed, the diversity of skill that the ER physicians had to acquire, the variety of cases, and the ability to interact closely with people.
I think making friends you can work with is a skill like any other, developing those particular kinds of intimacies. They’re intimacies like any other, but they grow in a definite direction, not just willy-nilly like normal friendships.
Here’s my take on Andy Kaufman… For Kaufman, comedy was a skill that was open for examination. He didn’t just do comedy, he deconstructed it like it was a transistor set. He pulled out all the wires and switched them around, often in front of our very eyes.
Don’t bring your need to the marketplace, bring your skill. If you don’t feel well, tell your doctor, but not the marketplace. If you need money, go to the bank, but not the marketplace.
There are lots of theories that the simpler a comic character is drawn the more relatable they become. People can imprint themselves onto the gaps in the picture. The skill of cartooning is often working out how much can be stripped away.
I personally served on active duty with many women service members who consistently demonstrated tremendous skill, leadership, and unquestioned commitment.
When Ron Howard does ‘Rush,’ he has to learn and steep himself in F1 culture and European racing culture, and that’s part of the fun of the gig. You learn to learn. Your real skill as a director is being a learner and an observer. You’re constantly learning another thing in context.
I love the responsibility of being a Victoria’s Secret spokesmodel. It’s a great life skill.
Sometimes with anger you can be much more dangerous than with skill.
I know how to cane chairs – how’s that for a useless skill? My mom once took a course and taught me how to do it when I was stuck at home sick with the flu. Now I’m all set if I ever decide to drop out of fashion and join an Amish community.
If you develop just one muscle, one skill, make it the ability to focus and just get on with it. It will not only make you desirably employable, but it will make you happy.
For a little while I kind of shunned away from the media and just concentrated on my skill sets and performing and I got that down.
