I never wanted to be Marilyn – it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

We were born to die and we die to live. As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven.

I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.

If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

I don’t look at myself as a commodity, but I’m sure a lot of people have.

You don’t know when you’re being watched. That’s one of the weird things about celebrity. It’s my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

I’m nobody, who are you?

Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair.

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

That is what fame is, isn’t it? To get the world to fall in love with you.

I made my first white women friends in college; they loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered.

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‚different‘: scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.

Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me.

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

I’m a child of God first. Before I became a celebrity, I was baptized a Christian.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

I’ve never been an intellectual but I have this look.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

I look out at the stadiums full of people and see them all knowing the words to songs I wrote. And curling their hair! I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny. And wonderful.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

I went from being the Terminator to being the governator.

Developing nations want to become developed nations.

My affection for Taiwan… is witnessed by everyone. My wife is Taiwanese and I am a son-in-law of Taiwan. I am half Taiwanese.

We can realise a lasting peace and transform the East-West relationship to one of enduring co-operation.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

In the book of Gaga, fame is in your heart, fame is there to comfort you, to bring you self-confidence and worth whenever you need it.

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.

When I started out, I didn’t have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous.

India does not need to become anything else. India must become only India. This is a country that once upon a time was called the golden bird.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?

I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.

I read so much stuff that black women say, especially about my relationship. ‚Oh, he left his black wife to go be with some exotic chick.‘ First of all, my girl is black: she’s Jamaican.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

I don’t blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they’ll realize there’s more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

Most people don’t like change. They revolt against it unless they can clearly see the advantage it brings. For that reason, when good leaders prepare to take action or make changes, they take people through a process to get them ready for it.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

I always like to create things that get attention. It used to be a problem when I wasn’t famous. Now, I can do whatever I want and people have to accept it.

I don’t have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don’t know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don’t know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don’t think you need all that stuff.

Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well.

What people see on court is another side of me; it’s not me.

I am what I am. A fighter.

I don’t think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.

Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists – it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up… I cannot be on the way up again.

I guess it’s flattering that everyone believed I was those characters, but it also is dehumanizing.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.

Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.

Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.

We have one planet in our solar system that’s habitable, and that’s the Earth, and space travel can transform things back here for the better. First of all, by just having people go to space and look back on this fragile planet we live on. People have come back transformed and have done fantastic things.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

I groan daily under a body of sin and corruption. Oh for the time when I shall drop this flesh, and be free from sin!