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!

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

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

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

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. 

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

If fame is only to come after death, I am in no hurry for it.