Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert’s Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion.

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

We are often attracted to the wrong things, whether it be money, fame, or approval.

I was probably the first footballer ever to have a pop-star profile, and my agent was right when he said we could put my name on stair rods and sell them to people in bungalows.

I’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it, but the restrictive part is what I don’t like – and the fact that it’s not reversible.

I have worked ever since I was 13.

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

You don’t know when you’re being watched. That’s one of the weird things about celebrity. It’s my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.

‚Fame‘ exhausts me.

Becoming famous was never what I wanted to do. There’s a lot of things that come with fame – it’s what people in the limelight have to do.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense… I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.

You know, from age 17 on, my paycheck was coming from cooking and working in kitchens.

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

I wanted to use my fame and this face that everyone knows so well to help uplift and inspire people around the world.

I worked for Xerox for 4 years and after that I knew I was never going to be a corporate person. It wasn’t my environment.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

I don’t like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I’m from New York. I will kill to get what I need.

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

I knew no one who’d ever been in the public eye.

Fame itself… doesn’t really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant.

If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

I’m not a star. I don’t feel I’m so great. So how can I make you feel great just because you’ve got my signature on a piece of paper?

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists – it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up… I cannot be on the way up again.

I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.

The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too – eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway – I was a sandwich artist – and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.

Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle. So at least it’s something I experience, but that’s not where I live.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it’s their fault.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?

The fame isn’t important to me. It’s a blessing to have. Having so many people that support me, that love me and listen to my music, is beautiful.

I don’t have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don’t know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don’t know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don’t think you need all that stuff.

You know, fame is a funny thing, man, especially, you know, actors, musicians, rappers, rock singers, it’s kind of a lifestyle and it’s easy to get caught up in it – you go to bars, you go to clubs, everyone’s doing a certain thing… It’s tough.

I hate being called an ‚icon.‘ I just don’t like it. That’s all there is to it.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you’ve got people just streaming up the mountain – well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

It confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

Overnight stardom can be harmful to your mental health. Yeah. It has ruined a lot of people.

The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.

Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it’s mad that people like me are listened to – you know, rap stars and movie stars.

I have no use for people who throw their weight around as celebrities, or for those who fawn over you just because you are famous.

I think sometimes celebrities get so big, they’re not reachable.

I came to California and got signed at a young age. And it’s not like you see in the movies, where you start rubbing shoulders with Timbaland and Pharrell, and you become a giant pop star.

I just hope people don’t get sick of us. I’m sick of us and I’m in Destiny’s Child.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

I was an overnight sensation.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her; if she did not, the longest day would pass me on the chase, and the approbation of my dog would forsake me then. My barefoot rank is better.