Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.

We all have a contract with the public—in us they see themselves, or what they would like to be.

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

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

Avoid the talk of men. For talk is mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to bear and difficult to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even talk is in some ways divine.

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

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

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

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

When I do a show, the whole show revolves around me, and if I don’t show up, they can just forget it.

I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God.

Those who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves.