I have Van Gogh's ear for music
Interpretation
The quote humorously suggests that someone may be very good at one thing while lacking talent in another.
Stephen Fry's quote, 'I have Van Gogh's ear for music,' juxtaposes the renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh's lack of appreciation for music with Fry's own self-deprecating acknowledgment of his musical ineptitude. This phrase cleverly implies that just as Van Gogh was a visual genius but not musically inclined, Fry is adept in certain areas of art yet humorously admits his shortcomings in music, highlighting the notion that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.
In practice
In a speech about creative professions, one might use this quote to humorously illustrate the quirks of artistic talent.
I used many times to touch my own chest and feel, under its asthmatic quiver, the engine of the heart and lungs and blood and feel amazed at what I sensed was the enormity of the power I possessed. Not magical power, but real power. The power simply to go on, the power to endure, that is power enough, but I felt I had also the power to create, to add, to delight, to amaze and to transform.
To be human and to be adult means constantly to be in the grip of opposing emotions, to have daily to reconcile apparently conflicting tensions. I want this, but need that. I cherish this, but I adore its opposite too.
There comes a time when the blankness of the future is just so extreme, it's like such a black wall of nothingness. Not of bad things like a cave full of monsters and so, you're afraid of entering it. It's just nothingness, the void, emptiness and it is just horrible. It's like contemplating a future-less future and so you just want to step out of it. The monstrosity of being alive overwhelms you.
As someone who worked hard for a Labour victory in the 90s, do I regret it? Not really. It was bound to happen. And it'll happen with the next government, and the one after it. Because all governments serve us. They serve the filth.
It's now very common to hear people say 'I'm rather offended by that'.
You can't just say there is a God because well, the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children. You have to account for the fact that almost all animals in the wild live under stress with not enough to eat and will die violent and bloody deaths. There is not any way that you can just choose the nice bits and say that means there is a God and ignore the true fact of what nature is.
A silly remark can be made in Latin as well as in Spanish.
I've been accused of vulgarity. I say that's bullshit.
We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
It should seem that it is easier to square the circle than to get round a mathematician.
There are a couple of things I want to impart to ladies who want to be in comedy: One, you donβt have to be weird or be quirky to get your job done. And two, comedy skill is not sexually transmittable. You do not have to sleep with a comedian to learn what youβre doing. Male comedians will not like that advice, but it is the truth.
Men capable of governing empires fail to control a small white ball, which presents no difficulties whetever to others with one ounce more brain than a cuckoo clock. I wish to goodness I knew the man who invented this infernal game. I'd strangle him. But I suppose he's been dead for ages. Still, I could go and jump on his grave.
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