Success Quote by George Kennedy

Kennedy’s anecdote is doing two things at once: puncturing the myth of meritocracy and protecting himself from sounding either bitter or boastful. By invoking Orson Welles (and letting the name do its gravitational work), he borrows a little of Welles’s swagger while also framing the whole exchange as show-business folklore: a backstage truth passed down like a lucky charm.

“Success is primarily luck anyway” lands as both comfort and provocation. It flatters the many talented people who didn’t “make it,” and it needles the winners who want their trophies to be pure proof of virtue. Coming from Welles - the wunderkind whose early triumphs were followed by battles with studios and reputation - the line has a particular bite. It’s not naïve modesty; it’s a man who watched the machinery up close admitting the machine has moods.

Kennedy’s follow-up is the subtextual masterstroke: “I have been very lucky” reads like humility, but it’s also a subtle claim of legitimacy. He’s not denying effort; he’s refusing the self-made narrative because it’s dishonest about how careers actually work: timing, gatekeepers, trends, the one audition that hits when a producer is in the right mood. Then he pivots: Welles was “enormously talented and brilliant,” so “who am I to argue” becomes a wry dodge. He agrees without quite confessing anything, and he keeps admiration in frame so the whole remark doesn’t sour into cynicism. It’s an actor’s deftest move: acknowledging the con while still honoring the craft.