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

I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.

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.

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.

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

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.

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

Reality is always the foe of famous names.

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

Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.

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

There lurks in every human heart a desire of distinction which inclines every man first to hope and then to believe that nature has given him something peculiar to himself.