I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.

I tend not to like an awful lot of what is going out under my name now because it is just all product. Who needs it?

The mainstream is always under attack.

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

I love playing under pressure. In fact, if there’s no pressure, then I’m not in the perfect zone.

America is just downright mean.

Romcoms are hard in a lot of ways: they’re built to be buoyant. It’s easy to demean them.

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.

It undoubtedly feels nice when you are being appreciated and you get complimented by girls. Who doesn’t like that? Having said that, I don’t take it as any pressure.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

Henry Kissinger should have the door shut in his face by every decent person and should be shamed, ostracized and excluded.

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

If your payloads cost hundreds of millions of dollars, they actually cost more than the launch. It puts a lot of pressure on the launch vehicle not to change, to be very stable. Reliability becomes much more important than the cost. It’s hard to get off of that equilibrium.

There was my name up in lights. I said, ‚God, somebody’s made a mistake.‘ But there it was, in lights. And I sat there and said, ‚Remember, you’re not a star.‘ Yet there it was up in lights.

When I’m up there, and I know the show’s coming to a close, in my head I’m saying to myself, Oh man, you gotta get off and be a normal person again. That’s what I don’t like so much.

People in Latin America… love America from afar and emulate America in some ways but also hate a lot of things that America does to them.

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

Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.

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.

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

I was an overnight sensation.

I seen a lot of artists be hot for a minute, and then that’s it, and somebody else come in.

I don’t usually admire Sarah Palin, but when she was making fun of this ‚hopey changey stuff,‘ she was right: there was nothing there.

When I was younger, I felt pressure to become someone else once I became successful.

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

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.

Everyone who is critical of Israeli policy is deluged by crazed messages intended to flood their email system or, more insidiously, passwords are accessed and messages sent out under their name! I’m sure it’s illegal. It’s also an effort to undermine free speech.

I hope when I’m dead I’ll be considered an icon, though.

At the start of the season, there are 16 teams in the top division looking behind them, making sure they avoid relegation. The fear starts in the boardroom, comes down to managers and through to players. The fans sense it.

I feel strange when I get applauded by people in power… because it’s obvious that it’s them I’m criticizing, but they can’t show that in front of the cameras. It’s quite funny sometimes.

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.

Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.

From my close observation of writers… they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

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

Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.

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.

I’m a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that’s never healthy.

Weak character will neutralize all of the other possible good qualities a person might possess.

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

I look out at the stadiums full of people and see them all knowing the words to songs I wrote. And curling their hair! I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny. And wonderful.

I always want to listen to people and receive good criticism, but I just don’t have to answer to them; I have to answer to God.

He who acts with a constant view to his own advantage will be much murmured against.

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

There are some people who hate my guts. But that goes with the territory.

There are too many people that depend on me. I’m too obligated. I’m in too far to get out.

The problem with Yanks is they are wimps.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

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?

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

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

Burroughs is crap. Crap.

There is a lot of pressure put on me, but I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself. I feel if I play my game, it will take care of itself.

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

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

My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.

Plato was a bore.

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.‘

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you’re obsessed with yourself, and I’m not – you can become unhinged so easily.

You can’t reverse fame. You can lose all the money, but you’ll never lose people knowing you.