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Authors and actors and artists and such - Never know nothing, and never know much.
Dorothy Parker
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Creative individuals often feel inadequate in their knowledge and skills, regardless of their talents.

This quote by Dorothy Parker reflects the sentiment that those in creative fields, such as authors, actors, and artists, often grapple with a sense of doubt regarding their expertise. Despite their accomplishments, they may feel they lack the complete understanding or mastery that society expects, which can create ongoing insecurities about their work and abilities.

Themes

CreativitySelf-DoubtArtKnowledgeInsecurity

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about the creative process, this quote could illustrate the uncertainty that artists face.

More from Dorothy Parker

There's life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowulf and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil.
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My land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges.
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Prince or commoner, tenor or bass, Painter or plumber or never-do-well, Do me a favor and shut your face - Poets alone should kiss and tell.
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They say of me, and so they should, It's doubtful if I come to good. I see acquaintances and friends Accumulating dividends And making enviable names In science, art and parlor games. But I, despite expert advice, Keep doing things I think are nice, And though to good I never come Inseparable my nose and thumb.
Dorothy ParkerRead
It is that word 'hunny,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.
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I can’t write five words but that I change seven.
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