
As quoted in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 6
Letter to Maxwell Perkins, Villa Marie à Valescure, Saint-Raphaël, France, c. 10 October 1924, as quoted in A Life in Letters https://books.google.com/books?id=3DGy0rdeLrsC&pg=PA82&dq=%22It+takes+a+genius+to+whine+appealingly.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC3b6sqp3TAhUm0oMKHXUBAXUQ6AEIRDAG#v=onepage&q=%22It%20takes%20a%20genius%20to%20whine%20appealingly.%22&f=false (1963), edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman
Quoted, Letters
As quoted in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 6
“The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.”
“Just take my word for it, will you? Assume I’m a genius.”
Grendel (p. 248)
Short fiction, Neutron Star (1968)
“"Genius" (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all).”
Life of Fredrick the Great http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/metabook/fgreat.html, Bk. IV, ch. 3 (1858–1865). Sometimes misreported as "Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains"; see Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 12.
1860s
Dylan Thomas and Hector Berlioz (1956).
Context: Genius is unquestionably a great trial, when it takes the romantic form, and genius and romance are so associated in the public mind that many people recognize no other kind. There are other forms of genius, of course, and though they create their own problems, they are not "impossible" people. But O, how deeply we should thank God for these impossible people like Berlioz and Dylan Thomas! What a weary, grey, well-ordered, polite, unendurable hell this would be without them!
“Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.”
I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company.
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Wheeler W. Dixon (2001), "Creating Ren and Stimpy (1992)", Collected Interviews: Voices from Twentieth-Century Cinema (SIU Press): 89
“Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple.”