Only the public can make a star. It’s the studios who try to make a system out of it.

If I were to make public these tapes, containing blunt and candid remarks on many different subjects, the confidentiality of the office of the president would always be suspect.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

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.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

How do people relate to movies now, when they’re on portable devices or streaming them? It’s not as much about going to the movies. That experience has changed.

I’ve taken so many kids out of Pittsburgh and onto the great white way in New York City right into a Broadway show.

Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.

I think, first of all, I don’t think people understand Ice Cube’s body of work. Ice Cube is a, and I hate to use the word ‚urban‘ but – when you think of Judd Apatow, and a person who’s launched so many careers, Ice Cube has done that for so many comedians, you know?

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.

What I’ve learned is that you really don’t need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

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

When you’re a pop star, it’s a little conservative; you always have to stay in a box. You have fans that are five and fans that are 65; there are so many people wanting so many things.

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.

In California, they don’t throw their garbage away – they make it into TV shows.

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

We are moving towards a world that is reordering itself and that may appear more ordered at some periods of time, but I see no sign that we are moving towards a world order in my definition of it – namely, a system which is accepted, which is internalized by the majority of the key participants.

Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

I wanna thank MTV and the VMAs for choosing me to be a part of the show because, on this show, if you not an icon or upcomin‘ icon, you’re not on the show, you know?

It confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.

I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market system.

In England, when an athlete gets to the top, we do our best to destroy him.

The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.

You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

I met my husband before I became a star, and he doesn’t care about any of it.

The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang.

One of the reasons I connect to the Super Bowl is that I approach my shows like an athlete.

Years ago, when I first started being a big star, I had fans that were fanatical. It was when ‚Jolene‘ was a big hit.

The ‚public‘ scares me, but people I trust.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

I hope when I’m dead I’ll be considered an icon, though.

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’ve always strived to be successful, not famous.

Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert’s Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion.

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

At the major studios, you see people wanting to remake a TV series, wanting to make a sequel.

If I’d married someone in show business, there’d be too much competition.

When I was on TV in the ’80s, I wasn’t thinking, ‚There’s a 10-year-old kid watching this and in 15 years, he’s gonna be doing stuff that was influenced by me.‘ I was trying to get my five minutes together. So now that those people are comedians and they’re influenced by me – it’s bizarre.

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.

When I got into this, I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me, I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor, and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

People want to act like they know celebrities. They want to see pictures. They want to know where you’re going. They want to hear you talk about your family.

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’ve never had that much trouble with the paparazzi, but I don’t run the same circles that a lot of these people that do get hounded by the paparazzi.

You’ve gotta understand that with branding and the way things are promoted, in our day and age, your older movie stars are not reachable or accessible because they’re not a part of the whole social media world.

I know I’m more on television, and I’m more recognisable than maybe even the players because they run and train, but I just stand there, and my face does all these funny things that everyone can see all the time.

If anything, a lot of electronic music is music that no one listens to at home, hardly. It’s really only to be heard when everyone’s out enjoying it.

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.

The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.

Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show.

I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.

Well, in order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times.

There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.

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

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