He who treats another human being as divine thereby assigns to himself the relative status of a child or an animal.

Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.

I am sick and tired of publicity. I want no more of it. It puts me in a bad light. I just want to be forgotten.

I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.

They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.

And what will history say of me a thousand years hence?

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 experienced, but that’s not where I live.

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honor, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to go and get insulted.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.