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.

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.

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

My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.

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?

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

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

I’m not in it for fame. I’ve been famous in the streets already.

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

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

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.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

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.

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.

It’s easy to become very self-critical when you’re an actor. Then you get critiqued by the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can’t I just be an ordinary woman?

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

We are not trying to entertain the critics. I’ll take my chances with the public.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

I am really proud that I am one of the artists that has the opportunity to be on magazine covers and to be in the movies.

The Medici created and destroyed me.

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

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

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

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

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.

In the book of Gaga, fame is in your heart, fame is there to comfort you, to bring you self-confidence and worth whenever you need it.

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 moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

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

Archimedes was my ideal. I admired the works of artists, but to my mind, they were only shadows and semblances. The inventor, I thought, gives to the world creations which are palpable, which live and work.

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.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

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 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.

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

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

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

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

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

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.

Some artists and indie musicians see Spotify fairly positively – as a way of getting noticed, of getting your music out there where folks can hear it risk-free.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

All my favorite artists and fashion icons and models are from the Nineties. Everybody was just so fearless.

Technology is huge; I wanted to learn about it. People might say that’s odd, but I think it’s odd if artists aren’t interested in the world around them. I’m always chasing that.

People want to act like they know celebrities. They want to see pictures. They want to know where you’re going. They want to hear you talk about your family.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s ‚mature‘ critics often are.

You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.

Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market.

To be famous, in fact, one has only to kill one’s landlady.

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

I think most artists would be happy to have bigger audiences rather than smaller ones. It doesn’t mean that they are going to change their work in order necessarily to get it, but they’re happy if they do get it.

I get really restless when I haven’t worked for a day and a half. I have a recurring dream that people are lined up next to my bed, waiting for autographs and taking pictures of me!

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that. You grind hard so you can play hard. At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.

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.

You pick up some fans and a handful of haters along the way.

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

What I’ve learned is that you really don’t need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.