Montaigne - Baruch Spinoza - Voltaire - Andy Warhol - Bronson 2009 - Bloody Mama 1970 - A is for Acid 2002 - George Foreman - Jesse Owens - Lord Byron - James Grainger - Socrates - Madonna - Courtney Love - John Lennon - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Pericles - Ecclesiasticus 44:1 - Eminem - Marilyn Monroe - Arthur Schopenhauer - Julie Burchill - Edmund Burke - G K Chesterton - Emily Dickinson - Erica Jong - Vladimir Nabokov - J G Ballard - Virginia Woolf - Fran Lebowitz - Robert Benchley - L Frank Baum - Jade: The Celebrity Who Changed Britain TV - Lawrence of Arabia: Britain’s Great Adventurer TV - Elvis: The Man that Rocked the World TV - Elvis: The Man Who Shook Up the World TV - Elvis: Rebirth of a King TV - Elvis: The Searcher TV - National Treasure, National Disgrace TV - Horizon TV - Don DeLillo -
Fame and tranquillity can be never be bedfellows. Montaigne aka Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Essais, 1580
The ordinary surroundings of life which are esteemed by men (as their actions testify) to be the highest good, may be classed under the three heads – Riches, Fame, and the Pleasures of Sense: with these three the mind is so absorbed that it has little power to reflect on any different good. Baruch Spinoza
Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste. Voltaire, Candide
Everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. Andy Warhol
My name’s Charles Bronson. In all my life I’ve wanted to be famous. I knew I was made for better things. I had a calling. I didn’t know why. Wasn’t singing. Can’t fucking act. Kind of running out of choices really, aren’t we. Bronson 2009 starring Tom Hardy & Matt King & James Lance & Amanda Burton & Kelly Adams & Jonathan Phillips & Mark Powley & Joe Tuckeret al, director Nicolas Winding Refn
Ma, do you reckon Dillinger’s more famous than we are? Bloody Mama 1970 starring Shelley Winters & Lisa Jill & Robert Walden & Alex Nicol & Robert De Niro & Pat Hingle & Don Stroud & Diane Varsi & Bruce Dern & Clint Kimbrough et al, director Roger Corman, son
When I was a boy I knew that one day I’d be famous, that destiny had great things in store for me. A is for Acid 2002 starring Martin Clunes & Keeley Hawes & Richard Hope & Celia Imrie & Rowena Cooper & Terence Beesley & Barbara Marten & Claire Nielson et al, director Harry Bradbeer, opening lines
When you’re famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature – and it won’t hurt your feelings – like it’s happening to your clothes not you. Marilyn Monroe
Fame is fickle and I know it has its compensations. But it also has its drawbacks and I’ve experienced them both. Marilyn Monroe
With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else’s ideas about you, but what’s important is how you feel about yourself – for survival and living day to day with what comes up. Marilyn Monroe
Fame doesn’t fulfil you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary. Marilyn Monroe
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 experience, but that’s not where I live. Marilyn Monroe
All of a sudden, one day, you’re this boxer that everybody like, or you’re this guy that people pass on the highway and wave at. The next day you’re this guy that everybody wants to touch – be in touch with you. Then you think that this is the answer to all things. George Foreman
For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world. Jesse Owens, Jesse: The Man Who Outran Hitler
What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little. Lord Byron
What is fame? an empty bubble;
Gold? a transient, shining trouble. James Grainger, Solitude, 1755
Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds. Socrates
I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God. Madonna
When ... you’re first famous and you’re flush with your influence and you say something whimsical, at a party or something to be cool, it gets reported for real. Courtney Love
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that. I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock-n-roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me. John Lennon
A famous writer who wants to continue writing has to be constantly defending himself against fame. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Writers at Work
For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial. Pericles
Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. Ecclesiasticus 44:1
You know, fame is a funny thing, man, especially, you know, actors, musicians, rappers, rock singers, it’s kind of a lifestyle and it’s easy to get caught up in it – you go to bars, you go to clubs, everyone’s doing a certain thing ... It’s tough. Eminem
Honour means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honour, only something which must not be lost. Arthur Schopenhauer
I almost choke on my popcorn when I hear film stars, who walk on red carpets as much as the rest of us do on zebra crossings, criticising youngsters who crave fame. Julie Burchill
Passion for fame: a passion which is the instinct of all great souls. Edmund Burke
The present condition of fame is merely fashion. Gilbert K Chesterton
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us – don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog! Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems
Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are. Erica Jong
Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name. Vladimir Nabokov
A kind of banalization of celebrity has occurred: we are now offered an instant, ready-to-mix fame as nutritious as packet soup. J G Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition
While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded. Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace. Virginia Woolf
The best fame is a writer’s fame: it’s enough to get a table at a good restaurant, but not enough that you get interrupted when you eat. Fran Lebowitz, cited Observer 30th May 1993
It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous. Robert Benchley, English clergyman & scholar
When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For aside from my evident inability to do anything great I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one’s heart and brings its own reward. L Frank Baum
Jade was never a fairytale person. Never believed in fantasies or pretty things. Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain, mother, Channel 4 2019
One of the most high profile celebrity weddings of the year. Sunday’s ceremony is the latest twist in Jade Goody’s ongoing battle with cancer. ibid. television news
She was the impoverished daughter of drug addicts. ibid. US television news