“It is possible to become a painter, a sculptor, or a musician by study, but not a dramatic poet; a man is so either at once or never, as he is blonde or brown, and cannot help it.”

—  Alexandre Dumas, fils

On peut devenir un peintre, un sculpteur, un musicien même à force d'étude; on ne devient pas un auteur dramatique. On l'est tout de suite ou jamais, comme on est blond ou brun, sans le vouloir.
Preface to Le Père Prodigue (1859), in Théatre complet de Al. Dumas fils (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1868-98) vol. 3, p. 199; translation by E. P. Evans from The Atlantic Monthly, May 1890, pp. 584-5.

Original

On peut devenir un peintre, un sculpteur, un musicien même à force d'étude; on ne devient pas un auteur dramatique. On l'est tout de suite ou jamais, comme on est blond ou brun, sans le vouloir.

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Alexandre Dumas, fils 8
French writer and dramatist, son of the homonym writer and … 1824–1895

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