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

Happy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame—to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a hell!

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

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

A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.

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

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

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

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

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

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

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.

Most authors seek fame, but I seek for justice—a holier impulse than ever entered into the ambitious struggles of the votaries of that fickle, flirting goddess.