I think that, initially, I was most passionate about music and particularly about playing the piano. I started playing when I was nine, and I was obsessed with it, really. I wouldn't even go spend the night at a friend's unless they had a piano. But I didn't have the chops, the extraordinary talent to be able to play the piano professionally.

Holly Hunter

I learned to cook in self-defense. My wife doesn't know what a kitchen is. In the first month of our marriage, she broiled lamb chops 26 nights in a row. Then I took over. I used to mind her not caring about food, but no more - as long as I can eat what I want.

Alan King

Marriage Food Car

Pittsburgh's definitely the city where I learned how to be on a stage, hold a microphone, and interact with an audience. It's where I got my chops as an entertainer and as a performer, so I'm grateful to the queer community there because they are active and vocal and they care about each other.

Alaska

Car Age Wit

No idea should be discarded completely, but - as one might imagine - it does take a degree of ingenuity to find a new spin on something as hackneyed as the 'Adam and Eve' story. But if you think you've got the chops for it, there's no reason not to try.

Alastair Reynolds

Car You Try

My acting chops are awful.

Andrew Luck

Tin T Hop

People still ask my husband and me which of us is the mom - which, as one lesbian friend pointed out to me, is like asking which chopstick is the fork. This pressure on us to embody normative traditions can be paralysing.

Andrew Solomon

Mom Which Us

Why did God have to make Mo'Nique a good actress? What was God thinking when he decided to give Mo'Nique acting chops. Now we have to endure Mo'Nique comedy specials.

Andy Kindler

Good God Why

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

Andy Serkis

You Tin Thing

Tip your drag queens, bartenders, and don't rub your chopsticks together at the sushi restaurant. Also, just in general, don't be a dirtbag human.

Aquaria

Art Your You

I like to keep my voice going. I don't want it to lose its chops. You know, as you age, it's easier for you to lose it.

Arnel Pineda

Age You Want

I'm very hard on myself as an artist to begin with, so I personally don't even think I have the proper chops to sell a record, but people think differently.

Ashleigh Murray

Art Wit Very

The cops picked me up for attempted murder. I can still see the detectives, licking their chops. Thought they had me. Two weeks later, the cat came out of a coma and told the truth. I was innocent.

Barry White

Truth Weeks Week

My favorite was always smothered pork chops. Smothered pork chops. That would be my request if I ever had one, and it was pretty consistent.

Chris Bosh

Would Ways Way

In a way, that's always been Yes' history to a large extent! Quite a few occasions when we've had a new band member or change in members, then we've done a new album with new chops and refreshed the musical approach.

Chris Squire

Music History Change

Comedy is like music. You have to know the key and you have to find players with good chops.

Christopher Guest

Music Good You

In comics, my experience has been mostly artists whose visual storytelling chops are either weak or they're more invested in rushing to a paycheck than in doing work they can be proud of.

Christopher Priest

Work Experience Art

To put it in musician's terms, my chops are good.

Cy Coleman

Music Good Us

The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer/songwriter, or find a singer to develop.

Cynthia Weil

Business Writer Write

When Dusty Rhodes passed away, that hit me hard because I couldn't call him any more. He couldn't bust my chops. He made a huge difference in my life on so many levels.

Diamond Dallas Page

Life Way Use

Working on a sitcom and improv improves your comedic chops. If you do it long enough, the one thing you learn to do is listen to the other characters.

Diedrich Bader

Work Your You

As far as I'm concerned, it's no good being able to wail out smokin' leads if your rhythm chops hugg!

Dimebag Darrell

Good Your You

Whenever I feel my chops are slacking, I'll play some wide-stretch trilling exercises and take them up and down the neck as well as across it.

Dimebag Darrell

Even though I'll do finger warm-ups that go up and down the neck to build up my chops and dexterity, I never, ever sit around and practice the actual licks I'm gonna play live. If you do, then you'll be all worried about the complexity of getting the fingering right and everything else about it, as opposed to the feel.

Dimebag Darrell

Sheep may not be brilliant, but they know that sheep in pen is stage number one of lamb chops.

Donald McCaig

I don't want to get burned when I'm cooking. To avoid getting hit when pan-frying, I stand far away and use chopsticks that are almost two feet long. I learned it from my mom, who does the same thing.

Eddie Huang

Besties Adwoa Aboah and Cara Delevingne have lot in common. They are both beautiful It Brits with impressive modeling chops - and matching half-heart tattoos that symbolize their unbreakable bond.

Elaine Welteroth

I think, without a doubt, I'd outshine The Rock because he can't do quite what I do, but he is good at the guitar, and he's got some chops to him, so I don't think you need to think about it too much.

Elias

I was in a church choir early on and that really helped me musically in terms of chops, learning how to sing harmonies.

Emily Saliers

I knew more about produce from the sea than any of my schoolmates, and my reports in school, from kindergarten on, amused and shocked my classmates and teachers. I told them how we ate with chopsticks, had rice and seaweed for breakfast, raw fish, octopus, and sea urchin eggs for supper, and cakes made from sharks.

Eugenie Clark

I love players like Thurston Moore. I mean, you can put notes down on a sheet of paper, and if you practice and get your chops up, you can play like an Eddie Van Halen or a Steve Vai. But nobody can do what Thurston Moore does; he's his own guy. He talks through his instrument in a language that's all his own.

Frank Iero

I always say, if a guy writes the same lead female character type over and over, we are not seeing their writing chops so much as their dating website wishlist.

Gail Simone

I know that I'm capable of moving around on the guitar. I can express myself the way I want to and feel good about it. But as far as technical chops, I'm not a learned musician.

Gary Clark, Jr.

You spend most of your life working and trying to hone your craft, working on your chops, working on your writing, and you don't really think about accolades. Then you get a bit older and they start coming your way. It's a nice pat on the back.

Geddy Lee

I bought a piano once because I had the dream of playing As Time Goes By as some girl's leaning on it drinking a martini. Great image. But none of it worked out. I can't even play Chopsticks. But I've got a nice piano at my house!

George Clooney

Historically, Jose Mourinho is not a manager who chops and changes his team and he's not big on rotation.

Graeme Souness

I'm a natural piano player. So all the practicing I do at this point is in my head. If I don't play for a year, my chops aren't going to get any worse. I've spent my time playing scales, and I don't necessarily want to play any faster than I play. So everything I do at this point is more philosophical.

Harry Connick, Jr.

Marriage is like twirling a baton, turning hand springs or eating with chopsticks. It looks easy until you try it.

Helen Rowland

I think that, initially, I was most passionate about music and particularly about playing the piano. I started playing when I was nine, and I was obsessed with it, really. I wouldn't even go spend the night at a friend's unless they had a piano. But I didn't have the chops, the extraordinary talent to be able to play the piano professionally.

Holly Hunter

I wouldn't even go spend the night at a friend's unless they had a piano. But I didn't have the chops, the extraordinary talent, to be able to play the piano professionally.

Holly Hunter

When I was a kid, it was always very embarrassing for me if I wet the bed - I was 5 years old. I didn't want my parents or my brothers to find out because they'd bust my chops to no end.

Ian Ziering

I have the comedic chops and intelligence to raise points and discuss both sides of whatever is on our mind as a society.

Iliza Shlesinger

Now that I have better producer chops, a country album is something I want to do one day. I don't know who's going to put it out. But when I do, I don't think people will call it 'country music.' They'll probably call it 'neo-soul.'

India Arie

When you're learning, especially to write, unless you're some incredibly gifted writer, a young Malcom Gladwell, say, you need to be imitating people. You need to be imitating how they make their work, how they structure it, how they design the pieces. It gives you chops; it gives you moves.

Ira Glass

Boxing gives you such a good workout, although I've stopped sparring. When your hand speed goes, you're going to get caught, and you can't afford to take cumulative smacks on the chops when you're a writer.

Irvine Welsh

Ten inches is a very versatile size for a skillet. It's the ideal vessel for sauteing vegetables for a small family or searing a couple of large steaks, pork chops, or pieces of fish.

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Whenever you can bring your chops in as a reporter to unearth a cool story, that's always a good thing.

J. Michael Straczynski

It's easy to think you can get discovered on the street, but I developed my chops on the stage - four years of theater in high school, and then another four in college.

James Wolk

You know 'Ninotchka?' I recommend it. It's kind of a mess, too. It was before, you know, we got slick editing tools, so it kind of chops along.

Jane Lynch

People are roasting each other at parties, at work events, around the fire. It's so fun. People are busting each other's chops, and it's a sign of affection, truly. It's a true test of love and friendship: can you make a man laugh at himself? So what makes a good burn? Go after targets you love and respect. And hit 'em hard.

Jeff Ross

You can really get your chops in shape in the resident theatres, and I urge anyone to investigate them and to be willing to go anywhere to pursue the great roles.

Jefferson Mays

I like to do theater and hopefully be effective. Most actors, at least contemporary actors of my generation, can't do it. They don't have the chops.

Jeffrey Wright