Everybody denies I am a genius - but nobody ever called me one!
Upstart greatness is everywhere less respected than ancient greatness.
Some superior minds are unrecognized because there is no standard by which to weigh them.
Genius is never understood in its own time.
Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it.
Our genius ain't appreciated around here... let's scram!
Scholastically, I did enough to get by, but I was smarter than I let on.
There's a lot of mediocrity being celebrated, and a lot of wonderful stuff being ignored or discouraged.
Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not - because the thing they were good at at school wasn't valued, or was actually stigmatized.
I'm perpetually curious as to what happened to all those supposed prodigies who were singled out while I and my coterie of far more interesting malcontents passed on.
2005 was a great year for me for fantastic roles that nobody saw.
Genius knocks on the door and gets no answer but its own echo.
Popular in our time, unpopular in his. So runs the stereotype of rejected genius.
Genius, like truth, has a shabby and neglected mien.
Loner heroes do appeal to that part of yourself that feels as though your genius hasn't been recognised.
A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!
A lot of great authors are published before their time. That's not wrong; it's just the way it works.
The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to understand.
