The phrase "cannot quite be" is correct and can be used in written English.
It is typically used to express that something is not completely or entirely able to be done or achieved. Example: "Despite his best efforts, the puzzle cannot quite be solved due to a missing piece."
Yet this cannot quite be right.
It's rather that, in Antonioni's world, the superficial and the profound cannot quite be distinguished.
A "Yossarian" cannot quite be taken seriously, whereas a "Gatsby" must indeed be Great.
Happy came from India with big dreams that cannot quite be accommodated in his subterranean job.
For reasons that cannot quite be explained, it's the Toms River East American League that's the powerhouse.
These big sedans cannot quite be described as luxury cruisers, but they are roomier and more lavish than, say, the midsize Sonata.
What Sacks, who is inveterately musical himself, cannot quite appreciate, is what it might be like to experience what he terms "amusia" at will.
On December 22nd, Garfield trudged through a few more lesser addresses: "Curious tone of self-depreciation runs through them all — which I cannot quite believe was genuine.
It thus joins the illustrious world of PricewaterhouseCoopers and DaimlerChrysler as examples of companies that merge but cannot quite decide which is the underdog and should be consigned to oblivion.
It is a trusting world view that cannot quite capture what is different about Italian journalism and Italian society and why it is that Mr. Berlusconi gets away with such outlandish statements and acts.
All by itself, it makes the statement that "Hedley" itself cannot quite make, which is that the eighties did not constitute a fanfare for the common man — they were a time when the country forgot its song.
