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.

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

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.

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

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

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

Reality is always the foe of famous names.

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

How sweet it is to have people point and say, “There he is.”

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

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

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