I collect things called 'samplers' which are Victorian pieces of needlework usually done by children in a workhouse to show that they have a skill which can be used in service, stitching household linen or that kind of thing. I think they're very humble and very beautiful.

When you're writing plays, it's possible to believe you don't have any real world skill. When you're adapting, it is really all about the mechanics, so you feel closer to, I don't know, an accountant or someone who has a body of information. It's not all about temperament.

I did everything the wrong way round. I started in an odd place, with the wrong skill set and arguably worked backwards. I began my television career in Hong Kong, making longer format films from around Asia, then I went to the other extreme - presenting local London news.

During a few days' halt near Vesontio for the provision of corn and other supplies, a panic arose from inquiries made by our troops and remarks uttered by Gauls and traders, who affirmed that the Germans were men of a mighty frame and an incredible valour and skill at arms.

I sold 'Time Life' books on the telephone. It's probably the only pure skill job I've ever had. When you're on and you're good, you get 'yes' after 'yes.' When you're slightly off, you get rejection after rejection. It was one of the greatest jobs I ever had. It was brutal.

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.

As soon as I get time, I want to start to do some fight training. I tried a little boxing once with my personal trainer back in L.A. - it's such a good workout, and it's a good skill to have, especially in my industry, since sometimes you have to do stunts and fight scenes.

Just my two cents: Even as a Christian, I love boxing because it's the ultimate stand-alone test of a competitor's skill and will. Just two opponents, lightly gloved, and a referee ready to jump in and stop it the moment he believes one opponent can no longer defend himself.

Worse there cannot be; a better, I believe, there may be, by giving energy to the capital and skill of the country to produce exports, by increasing which, alone, can we flatter ourselves with the prospect of finding employment for that part of our population now unemployed.

And so, at the age of thirty, I had successively disgraced myself with three fine institutions, each of which had made me free of its full and rich resources, had trained me with skill and patience, and had shown me nothing but forbearance and charity when I failed in trust.

Serious beliefs are awkward, especially religious ones. It's not that there's anything wrong with them, it's just that people's real, heart-felt, deeply held beliefs are, well, 'not easy to handle or deal with, requiring great skill, ingenuity, or care' - in a word, awkward.

There are basically five ways to score in the half court. Layups, mid-range, three-pointers, free throws - and then what I call 'tough shots.' Tough shots come anywhere on the floor, under difficult circumstances. The ability to create that shot is a special skill in the NBA.

It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator's skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.

Actors should be better poker players. But I think there's actual skill and crazy guts that you need to play poker - this ability to put all this money on the line inside of that game of cards. There's this whole different set of skills that doesn't apply to acting whatsoever.

People think that the arts are optional and they aren't. They teach a level of emotional depth that's equally important to mathematic skill. You can replace some math skills with a calculator if you know how to operate the thing, but there's no calculator for human interaction.

I always have believed in the value of the diversity and resilience and just, really, the different skill sets that our community has. But we've never been able to find the right platform and find the right environment for us as a community - for us as a professional community.

I was always a little embarrassed when there was an act on television that requires a great deal of skill but is a little goofy, and the host comes over and acts like the person doing this skill is some sort of fool for having learned to do something that's very, very difficult.

I always feel trepidation at the beginning of every project. I worry about so many things. Time to get it right, the skill to do it justice, the will to finish. I also worry about more mundane things, like what if my computer crashes and I've forgotten to back up the manuscript?

Ten percent of the American population thinks that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Those are the people that have not learned the skill of filtering information from the vast barrage of inaccurate information that we're all faced with everyday. I think that's a very 21st century skill.

I grew up a clumsy kid with bad hand-eye coordination. Yet here on El Cap, I felt as though I had stumbled into a world where I thrived. Being up on those steep walls demanded the right amount of climbing skill, pain tolerance, and sheer bull-headedness that came naturally to me.

My background is really being a writer's actor - that seems to be the way I work best, bringing out the best of writing. There's a whole range of acting skills, and some people can be astonishing with very poor material. That's not me; my skill is essentially unlocking the writing.

I don't view myself as a practitioner of a particular skill or method. I'm constantly looking at what's the most interesting problem that I could possibly work on. I really try to figure out what sort of scientist I need to be in order to solve the problem I'm interested in solving.

The homing instinct in birds and animals is one of their most remarkable traits: their strong local attachments and their skill in finding their way back when removed to a distance. It seems at times as if they possessed some extra sense - the home sense - which operates unerringly.

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.

True confidence is firmly planted in reality. To grow your confidence, it's important to do an honest and accurate self-assessment of your abilities. If there are weaknesses in your skill set, make plans for strengthening these skills and find ways to minimize their negative impact.

I always had a problem when I did the audio books myself because they weren't made to have me doing all the voices. And to hear established actors, and you think, 'Wow, that sounds like it's supposed to sound,' is great. They've got the right inflections, which is an enormous skill.

In sport, there is always room for improvement. Whenever I see my innings against the West Indies or Australia, I think, 'Maybe, I could have done this better or should have changed that.' See, cricket is a skill game, and one can always improve upon the impact one has on an innings.

I've always admired like everybody's skill like to tattoo. Like I've actually tattooed my best friend before. This is an experience for sure. Like, if I will really like take drawing seriously, I would consider being a tattoo artist. Like I love to just watch guys perfect their craft.

A team may have some great players, but typically, the team that works best together does the best. I look at running Broadcom in the same way. We have a culture where people have different skill sets, but they are happy to leverage their skills to help others and to help the company.

No one looks at your hands to see how much they shake when you are interviewed to be a surgeon. The physical skills required are no greater than for writing cursive script. If an operation requires so much skill only a few surgeons can do it, you modify the operation to make it simpler.

As an actor, there is room for a certain amount of creativity, but you're always ultimately going to be saying somebody else's words. I don't think I'd have the stamina, skill or ability to write a novel, but I'd love to write short stories and poetry, because those are my two passions.

Like any skill, systemising occurs on a bell curve in the population, with some people being faster at spotting patterns than others. Autistic people are often strong systemisers. Indeed their attention is often described as 'obsessive' as they check and recheck the patterns of a system.

Honestly, I wish I'd known just how hard it is and how competitive the acting world is. I took my time; I went at my own pace. That's been helpful over the years, but also, I didn't quite realize how incredible everyone else was going to be: the level of competition and everyone's skill.

Sports formed me. I was always decently skilled but lacked size, so I had to resort to using my skill versus my power. I strategically play golf because that's all I can do. It's the same on the basketball court. I try to get open and shoot it. Or I use the open space on the soccer field.

The three short years I spent at Harvard, where I lived with excellent people, taught me not only that I must know how to choose my partners but also that choosing excellent partners is a skill you can learn. Obviously, when you spend time with the best, you learn how to choose among them.

I think that no one, or very few, are born as good presenters. It's a skill that you learn. The key is the 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides given in 20 minutes using no font smaller than 30 points. If people just adhered to this rule, they would double or triple the quality of their presentations.

If someone is trying to skip the struggle - which is the creative job - our machines today, the technology that we have, can help the person, but it is only momentary. On the other hand, if you are creative, you have the skill, and you are hardworking, technology can only make you superior.

As a decision maker, you rely on information being passed to you by the people who report to you. As the CEO, however, you cannot rely solely on this information. You also need to 'dip' down into your organization and learn directly from employees at all levels and virtually all skill sets.

My job when I'm acting in a movie is very limited to playing a role. I'm not evaluating somebody. I'm only evaluating them insofar as they're interacting with me, but I'm not evaluating their skill set and I don't watch the movies, so I'm not aware of the way they're putting things together.

When you're younger, you see the people who are in power and think they must have that position because of some degree of skill. And as you get older, you realize it's not true, that most people in those positions are absolutely inept. And this naturally makes you feel better about yourself.

There's so much that goes into a film that I feel like it's a bit arrogant to say, 'Oh, I never watch my own movies.' Well, it's not just you. There's a whole host of other people. So much skill goes into it. But I would say it does take a couple times seeing it to get a level of perspective.

I started training with Fabricio Itte with my wrestling and high performance; I started spending a lot more time with my head coach Henry Perez and also my grappling coach Alex Prates. Those three are my core team, and they've made hugely important changes and skill enhancements with my game.

It does make it very clear, you know, what can happen if you do have... the right people, the right skill mix, that are trained and they're assembled in this team and they work together under the right leadership. You know, what a miracle can happen. And that's what was the case of Apollo 13.

I love the ocean, wide-open space and trees, but I'm not a gardener or anything like that. I think I may be, eventually. I was raised in the city, so I don't have that skill set, but my heart is more with the dirt than the concrete. It's an unrequited love with nature - a one-way love affair.

I think our path to the Olympics is a good metaphor for how you build a company. Our skill and commitment grew over time, day by day, stroke by stroke. So, sports are tied well with our entrepreneurial pursuits because you train for a few years, but there is no guarantee that you will succeed.

As I've traveled the country, we visit tech incubators all the time where women are going into their second or third act in their career and learning how to be software programmers, or how to work at startup companies, and learning a completely different skill set. I think it's never too late.

Da was a real fisherman. But it wasn't the catch that mattered, it was the skill of the cast, the preparation of the flies. I often think my inability to prepare, my desire to get going, are a direct result of watching my father making all those painstaking preparations before he cast his line.

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).

Economists specialize in pointing out unpleasant trade-offs - a skill that is on full display in the health care debate. We want patients to receive the best care available. We also want consumers to pay less. And we don't want to bankrupt the government or private insurers. Something must give.

Few can contemplate without a sense of exhilaration the splendid achievements of practical energy and technical skill, which, from the latter part of the seventeenth century, were transforming the face of material civilization, and of which England was the daring, if not too scrupulous, pioneer.

Share This Page