I'm a semi-failed writer, but I'm a capital-F Failed…

The ideal reader of my novels is a lapsed Catholic and failed musician, short-sighted, colour-blind, auditorily biased, who has read the books that I…

— Anthony Burgess

I'd hit thirty, I'd sort of failed as a musician, I'd failed as an artist I felt at the time.

— Paul Kaye

In the modern era, it isn't enough to write, you must also be the Writer, with a capital 'W,' and play your part as…

— Tony Kushner

“You know what a publisher is? He’s a failed writer whose father was rich enough that he’s able to appropriate other people’s talents.”

— Joël Dicker

“It is a misfortune to be in the presence of a writer, even a failed writer, to be seen by him, be his passing…

— Manu Joseph

No matter how successful I may get, I'll always be a failed musician, sitting at a concert double-fisting overpriced twenty-ounce beers, wishing it was…

— Bert Kreischer

I'm a failed musician rather than a successful writer.

— Irvine Welsh

I almost failed out of high school. I nearly gave in to the deep anger and resentment harbored by everyone around me... Whatever talents…

— J. D. Vance

Paradox: how do we know what we have failed to see because we have no language to express it, thus we cannot know that…

— Joyce Carol Oates

“Humility is what you strive for when you've failed at everything else.”

— Stephan Pastis

When the enemy is driven back, we have failed, and when he is cut off, encircled and dispersed, we have succeeded.

— Alexander Suvorov

I wanted to be a huge star and I have failed.

— John Otway

The very first company I started failed with a great bang. The second one failed a little bit less, but still failed. The third…

— Max Levchin

I recognize I am essentially a failed human being in the sense that I can't possibly live up to the expectations of an Almighty.

— George W. Bush

I failed, I think, seven [or] eight times before I finally got my first [championship]. It was just, you know, just about me growing…

— Shaquille O'Neal