Top 100 Famous Quotes of All Time

A short, finished list rather than an endless feed: 100 of the best famous quotes ever written, picked out of the full famous archive on QuoteForever. You will find Matt Damon, Jarvis Cocker, Lady Gaga and Lord Byron among them.

Read the list top to bottom, or use it as a starting point - every author name links to everything else they said, and every quote has its own page you can share or turn into an image.

1

The records of adopted children are sealed in California. That seal is considered inviolable... The judge ruled that, because I was famous, he didn't have the same rights as other kids.

2

Why am I so famous? What am I doing right? What are the others doing wrong?

3

Google is famous for making the tiniest changes to pixel locations based on the data it accrues through its tests. Google will always choose a spartan webpage that converts over a beautiful page that doesn't have the data to back it up.

4

I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'try being rich first'. See if that doesn't cover most of it. There's not much downside to being rich, other than paying taxes and having your relatives ask you for money. But when you become famous, you end up with a 24-hour job.

5

I remember being superyoung, like nine or ten years old, and thinking, 'Man, I wonder what famous people eat for breakfast. They must have some special kind of cereal!' My mind was so warped by the idea of fame.

6

Power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity is not inherent in any personality. To be celebrated, to be wealthy, to have power requires access to major institutions.

7

I became very famous, as a teenager, and my name and photo were splashed in all the media. They made me larger than life, so I wanted to live larger than life, and the only way to do that was to be intoxicated.

8

I like being famous when it's convenient for me and completely anonymous when it's not.

9

I've had to deal, a lot, with my own sense of intimidation at meeting famous people - especially actors, but really any famous people.

10

I love being famous - it's phenomenal.

11

Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.

12

My daughter couldn't care less about me being famous. She finds it revolting and, like a lot of teenagers, is virtually allergic to me. That started at 12 and hasn't gone anywhere yet.

13

I can do whatever I want - I'm rich, I'm famous, and I'm bigger than you.

14

On the other hand, when I give it closer thought, I realize I'm not enough of a dictator to conduct an orchestra because it requires a pretty awful person. When you read these biographies of famous conductors, they are all awful people who fail in their private relationships.

15

Being famous gets me good concert tickets, good tables in restaurants, good seats at sporting events and that's really about it.

16

I'm famous by default. I came out of the womb, and people wanted to know who I was because of my parents.

17

There were so much affairs of me created by the media... of course I was not always a true single. I had some relations, once also to a famous pop star.

18

I don't go to premieres. I don't go to parties. I don't covet the Oscar. I don't want any of that. I don't go out. I just have dinner at home every night with my kids. Being famous, that's a whole other career. And I haven't got any energy for it.

19

I was born in Glasgow. But my family is pretty much from a little town called Paisley, famous for its cotton mills and paisley pattern.

20

Famous people come up to me, but I don't know who they are because my sight is so bad. It's always at the pool of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills when I don't have my lenses in and my glasses are in my room.

21

I like photographing the people I love, the people I admire, the famous, and especially the infamous. My last infamous subject was the extreme right wing French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.

22

I wanted to go hide. I wasn't looking to be more famous, I'm famous enough.

23

I had a flight trainer who is one of the biggest and most famous helicopter pilots the world.

24

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

25

People think being famous is so glamorous, but half the time you're in a strange hotel room living out of a suitcase.

26

I think basically becoming famous has taken the place of going to Heaven in modern society, hasn't it? That's the place where your dreams will come true. It's an act of faith now; they think that's going to sort things out.

27

There's the famous thing that the A&R man from the record company is supposed to do: He's supposed to come into the studio and listen to the songs you've been recording and then say, 'Guys, I don't hear any singles.' And then everybody falls into a terrible depression because you have to write one.

28

How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?

29

For me, growing up, the downside of it was that as a kid you don't want to stand out. You don't want to have a famous father let alone get a job because of your famous father, you know? But I'm a product of nepotism. That's how I got my foot in the door, through my dad.

30

Nothing in life prepares you to be famous.

31

My name's Jennifer Ellison and one day I'm going to be famous!

32

Ever since grammar school, I knew I wanted to be famous - I always wanted to be a singer.

33

I have also just finished three weeks on a soap opera in England. The soap opera is a rather famous one called Crossroads. It was first on television 25 years ago, and it has recently been brought back. I play the part of a businessman called David Wheeler.

34

Living in L.A., everyone likes to mold you and change you. I don't care about fame, I don't care about being a celebrity. I know that's part of the job, but I don't feed into anyone's idea of who I should be.

35

Quite often I can be in a bookshop, standing beneath a great big picture of myself and paying for a book with a credit card clearly marked John Grisham, yet no one recognises me. I often say I'm a famous author in a country where no one reads.

36

The first pork-barrel bill that crosses my desk, I'm going to veto it and make the authors of those pork-barrel items famous all over America.

37

I think there are a lot of people who really want to be famous, they really do. I don't. It sort of gets in the way of the everyday things that I do.

38

I always work only with friends, but it must be about them and myself. Because I film only very personal moments, nothing preplanned, staged or written, it has to be real and spontaneous. Some of them have become famous, some are not yet famous, some will never be famous. But they are all my friends.

39

It feels like Radiohead are famous, but that no one knows who we are. Which is brilliant, really.

40

Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness.

41

I have had the opportunity to become acquainted with many wonderful people from many walks of life. I have known rich and poor, famous and modest, wise and otherwise.

42

I don't want to be famous as a movie star and have the whole world love me, I want to be a creative actress.

43

I'm not unknown, yet I'm not super famous where I can't go anywhere.

44

I can't imagine wanting to be famous just for the sake of being famous. I think fame should come along with success, talent.

45

It wasn't glamorous in my day. In the regions, reporters were seen as such low life that they didn't merit their name in the Radio Times. Now people are interested in being famous. I never gave it a thought.

46

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.

47

We had such a wonderful set of circumstances in Wilmington. Yes, the four of us became famous literally overnight, but we were in a small town and we always knew when people were coming down. We always knew when to behave.

48

When I was younger, I used to say, One day I'll be famous.

49

I'd prefer to go under the radar and just do the acting without being famous for it.

50

I became an actor, and because I had success as an actor, I became famous. I was acting for quite a while before I got famous; television made me famous. I guess that it's television that is responsible for everybody's desire to be famous.

51

I totally related to Cole Porter's magnetic pull to any piano that was in the room, which he was famous for doing, as was Gershwin. You couldn't drag them away from a piano.

52

After a fellow gets famous it doesn't take long for someone to bob up that used to sit by him in school.

53

The strangest part about being famous is you don't get to give first impressions anymore. Everyone already has an impression of you before you meet them.

54

The Bronx is famous for two things. Hip-hop, and 26 world championships.

55

I don't like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I'm from New York. I will kill to get what I need.

56

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.

57

Duke Ellington was famous for hs very original harmonic patterns.

58

They saw me, those reckless seekers of beauty, and in a night I was famous.

59

A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.

60

Fame is the thirst of youth.

61

I'm in my father's car at age 9 or 10 crying to Leonard Cohen's 'Famous Blue Raincoat,' thinking that you could write nearly a love letter to a man who betrayed you by having an affair with your wife. I was thinking how wonderful and pure music can be for explaining situations.

62

I was with a famous comedian when a young fan walked up and asked for an autograph. The comedian blew him off. I'll never forget the look on the young boy's face. He was devastated.

63

The problem is, the more famous you get, the more people see you who didn't choose to.

64

I want to be famous everywhere.

65

In opera, as with any performing art, to be in great demand and to command high fees you must be good of course, but you must also be famous. The two are different things.

66

The American Dream is a term that is often used but also often misunderstood. It isn't really about becoming rich or famous. It is about things much simpler and more fundamental than that.

67

The thing about being famous is, it's weird. The only people who get how weird it is are other famous people.

68

You know, one of the biggest thrills I have is when famous people recognize me from Taxi.

69

I'm so famous, people expect me to sell as many records as Celine Dion or Puff Daddy.

70

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

71

Know the names of past and current artists who are most famous for playing their instruments.

72

When I wasn't famous, I had a lot of friends, almost all of them Italian. The racism only started when I started to play football.

73

It's hard to have a bad hair day when you're famous.

74

I think being famous is more of a hindrance, a constraint, than just letting yourself be free.

75

There are people who appear in the magazines and I don't know who they are. I've never seen anything they've done and their careers are over already. They're famous for maybe 10 minutes. Real careers, I think, take a long time to unfold.

76

I fell in love with a civilian. Not an actress and not a famous actress at that. Because then the attention doesn't double - it grows exponentially. Because then suddenly everybody wants to be in your bedroom. But I don't really give them anything.

77

I'd had people say, 'You'll enjoy being famous for a week, and you'll never enjoy it again'. But I don't think I had that week. I may have been working and missed that moment.

78

It's funny - nowadays people that are famous get chased by paparazzi. They have this fame, but they don't have the money to hide from it.

79

I never set out to be rich and famous. I wanted to follow my own path.

80

I was a guy who wanted to become famous. There was steam coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly. You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant. I didn't think what the repercussions would be.

81

I've gotten books published. I've met famous people that are very nice. I look back and I say, 'Wow. Thank you, God, for giving me this gift. And thank you for helping me to keep going.'

82

When you become a celebrity, the world owns you and your image.

83

Bill Cosby is a famous black guy who has a bully pulpit the size of the world; it's global. He puts his colossal foot on the vulnerable necks of poor people, and as a result of that, we don't have a balanced conversation.

84

Maya Angelou, the famous African American poet, historian, and civil rights activist who is hailed be many as one of the great voices of contemporary literature, believes a struggle only makes a person stronger.

85

Two famous happy warriors - Reagan and his political soulmate, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - knew they were fighting their own ideological and external wars. But they did so with the sunny dispositions and positive outlooks of those who knew they were on the right side of history.

86

It was never about winning medals or being famous.

87

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

88

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

89

Fame is a lot of pressure, especially when you're responsible for your entire family. Financially, emotionally - everything.

90

I'm following my dreams and doing what I love as a designer. I did not want to be one of those kids with a famous last name that doesn't do anything. That is very unfulfilling to me and I'm very happy.

91

You're asking the wrong girl about fame. I'm hardly famous. I wouldn't want to trade places with anyone else.

92

In its famous paradox, the equation of money and excrement, psychoanalysis becomes the first science to state what common sense and the poets have long known - that the essence of money is in its absolute worthlessness.

93

I had one fight in my adult life. I had the famous '89 fight with Nicole, which she admits that she initiated the physical part.

94

Olympic Gold changed me and my life dramatically. I became a celebrity overnight and people see me as a famous skater, not a real person.

95

Did you ever stop to think why cops are always famous for being dumb? Simple. Because they don't have to be anything else.

96

You get to be famous or have some notoriety and there are so many people who want a piece of you.

97

A very quiet and tasteful way to be famous is to have a famous relative. Then you can not only be nothing, you can do nothing too.

98

Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians.

99

Few if any teenagers can relate to getting up for school and finding famous comics like Pryor and Williams hanging out in your living room after a hard night of partying. But that's Hollywood.

100

Being famous as a writer is like being famous in a village. It's not really any very heady fame.

More Famous quotes

This is the short list. The full famous quotes collection holds every quote on the subject in the archive, and the picture quotes are ready to share as images.

Share This Page