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

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky.

I can simply tell you that since I was a kid, I didn’t like to look like anyone else.

Early on in my life, I had a broken soul. I was abused by my father, abandoned by my mother and ended up in a destructive first marriage. By the time I was 23, I was broken in my soul. I didn’t know how to think right. I felt wrong about everything. But God stepped into my life, and I came out on the other side and didn’t even smell like smoke.

People don’t realize that we, we meaning people in show business, have the same problems as everyone else. Money doesn’t change that. Fame doesn’t change that. Sometimes that brings on more problems. You know, it’s just a different kind of problems.

Conversion is a change of masters. Will we not do as much for our new master, the Lord Jesus, as we did once for our old tyrant lusts?

Everyone looks at your watch and it represents who you are, your values and your personal style.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense… I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don’t know at all can just be like, ‚Oh my God – are you Billie?‘

I am not The Rock. I am Dwayne Johnson.

I like to hide behind the characters I play. Despite the public perception, I am a very private person who has a hard time with the fame thing.

I love to watch times change!

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

I just dress like… I’m an old black man. Sorry! Like I’m an old Jewish black man. I just dress like it’s still the ’50s.

To innovate is not to reform.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

‚Fame‘ exhausts me.

The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.

It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.

I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.

If I became a philosopher, if I have so keenly sought this fame for which I’m still waiting, it’s all been to seduce women basically.

People – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

All black Americans have slave names. They have white names; names that the slave master has given to them.

For people who may think they know, or have snippets of who I am, you can attack that person. That’s part of being a public figure.

What is normal? Normal was yesterday. If you lose a leg, one day you’re hopping around on one leg, so you know the difference.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

The present condition of fame is merely fashion.

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

I seen a lot of artists be hot for a minute, and then that’s it, and somebody else come in.

I am desperate for change – now – not in 8 years or 12 years, but right now.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

I was a thug.

Nothing endures but change.

Becoming famous was never what I wanted to do. There’s a lot of things that come with fame – it’s what people in the limelight have to do.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

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

At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

You can’t reverse fame. You can lose all the money, but you’ll never lose people knowing you.

Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.

No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to.

A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

I guess if I’m a product, either you’re chocolate, you’re vanilla or you’re butterscotch. You can’t be all three.

Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‚I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.‘

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

I can’t disguise myself with a wig and dark glasses – the wheelchair gives me away.

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

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

I hate being called an ‚icon.‘ I just don’t like it. That’s all there is to it.

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

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

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

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