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’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

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.

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.

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.

Years ago, when I first started being a big star, I had fans that were fanatical. It was when ‚Jolene‘ was a big hit.

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

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.

If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.

The challenge for me as an actor is if you become a celebrity, you don’t meet strangers anymore. And strangers are where we have our anonymity. And I believe it’s essential for the soul to be anonymous, especially if you’re going to be an actor.

Fame may go by and – so long, I’ve had you.

I lost some of my friends because I got so famous, people who just assumed that I would be different now. I felt like everyone hated me. That is the most unhappy time of my life.

When I was 8, I thought I was Harrison Ford, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Elvis, and Chuck Norris all at once.

Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations but it also has its drawbacks, and I’ve experienced them both.

I met my husband before I became a star, and he doesn’t care about any of it.

When you’re a pop star, it’s a little conservative; you always have to stay in a box. You have fans that are five and fans that are 65; there are so many people wanting so many things.

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.

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

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

That is what fame is, isn’t it? To get the world to fall in love with you.

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.

For people who may think they know, or have snippets of who I am, you can attack that person. That’s part of being a public figure.

I love Los Angeles, and it’s been very good to me, but if everyone is running around telling the stories, who’s living them? You don’t play characters that are celebrities – you play guys who know what to do when their septic tank’s blocked.

If I had a time machine, I’d visit Marilyn Monroe in her prime or drop in on Galileo as he turned his telescope to the heavens.

People don’t realize that we, we meaning people in show business, have the same problems as everyone else. Money doesn’t change that. Fame doesn’t change that. Sometimes that brings on more problems. You know, it’s just a different kind of problems.

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

I have never had plastic surgery, and there are many pop singers who have.

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.

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

Fame is like caviar, you know – it’s good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.

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

I don’t call up the press and say, ‚Look at me!‘

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

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?

The celebrity-chef thing, even at its worst, its most annoying, its silliest, its goofiest, its most egregious and cynical, has been a good thing.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

There’s Madeleine, and then there’s ‚Madeleine Albright‘. And I sometimes kind of think, who is this person? Once you become ‚Madeleine Albright‘ it doesn’t go away.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

I have to admit I’ve found myself doing the same things that a lot of other rock stars do or are forced to do. Which is not being able to respond to mail, not being able to keep up on current music, and I’m pretty much locked away a lot. The outside world is pretty foreign to me.

I was an overnight sensation.

I don’t know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people can’t stand to be invited someplace that isn’t full of other important people. They don’t mind a few unfamous people being present because they make good listeners.

I don’t think I could think of a single thing that’s more isolating than being famous.

The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang.

Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning. Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are susceptible of shame, and watchful, as the goose. Some are jealous and fond of ornament, as the peacock.

The Internet made fame wack and anonymity cool.

Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.

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.

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

Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

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

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.

The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.

In my view, the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience.

I never wanted to be Marilyn – it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

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

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.

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

I heard that when Christina Aguilera went back to her prom, people, like, booed her. I can’t imagine going through that. If you know that’s going to happen, why put yourself in that situation? I’d rather play for 20,000 screaming people, you know?