Talent is inborn, but technique is learned. Stephen Fry More Quotes by Stephen Fry More Quotes From Stephen Fry This is the point. One technology doesn't replace another, it complements. Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators. Stephen Fry elevatorstechnologybook Stop feeling sorry for yourself and you will be happy. Stephen Fry cheer-upsorryhappiness I get an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to a book. Stephen Fry writingpregnancybook No adolescent ever wants to be understood, which is why they complain about being misunderstood all the time. Stephen Fry misunderstoodcomplainingwant Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers. Stephen Fry milknosesfriendly There are some things I don't like, about which I think, well, that's me. But coriander is a giant hoax perpetrated by a perverted society. Stephen Fry giantsamericathinking The alarm in the morning? Well, I have an old tape of Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a perfectly transcendent version in Shubert's seventh symphony. And I've rigged it up so that at exactly 7:30 every morning it falls from the ceiling onto my face. Stephen Fry symphonymorningfall I have Van Gogh's ear for music Stephen Fry vansears Weather is real. It is absolutely real: when it rains, it rains – you get wet, there is no question about it. It is also true about weather that you can’t control it; you can’t say if I wish hard enough it won’t rain. It is equally true that if the weather is bad one day it will get better and what I had to learn was to treat my moods like the weather. Stephen Fry realrainweather Life, that can shower you with so much splendour, is unremittingly cruel to those who have given up. Stephen Fry splendourshowersgiven It's rather splendid to think of all those great men and women who appear to have presented symptoms that allow us to describe them as bipolar. Whether it's Hemingway, Van Gogh... Robert Schumann has been mentioned... Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath... some of them with rather grim ends. Stephen Fry virginiamenthinking One of the most unattractive human traits, and so easy to fall into, is resentment at the sudden shared popularity of a previously private pleasure. Which of us hasn't been annoyed when a band, writer, artist or television series that had been a minority interest of ours has suddenly achieved mainstream popularity? When it was at a cult level we moaned at the philistinism of a world that didn't appreciate it, and now that they do appreciate it we're all resentful and dog-in-the-manger about it. Stephen Fry artistdogfall Compromise is a stalling between two fools. Stephen Fry foolcompromisetwo One of the traps of adolescence is the sort of paranoid resentment that somehow you're never going to match up and that everybody else's life is going to be better and finer and fuller. That everyone else attended some secret lesson in which how to live was taught and you had a dental appointment that day, or you were somehow not invited. And the point of great writers like Wilde is that they make that invitation to you. Stephen Fry taughtlessonssecret Atheism comes into rather a bad press and I suppose I'd rather describe myself as a humanist... I don't believe in God. I don't believe there is a God. Stephen Fry atheismhumanistbelieve Incuriosity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is. Stephen Fry failingfoolish To me, reason is as spiritual as anything else, the beauty of reason seems to me indelible and ineffable and numinous... the spirit is after all the same word we use to describe... essence Stephen Fry essenceusespiritual As if a device can function if it has no style. As if a device can be called stylish that does not function superbly... yes, beauty matters. Boy, does it matter. It is not surface, it is not an extra, it is the thing itself. Stephen Fry does-it-matterstyleboys I may have looked happy but inside I was hopelessly depressed. Stephen Fry mental-illnessmaydepression Entry is not equivalent to possession. Stephen Fry propertyentrypossession
