c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
The bracelet and the first charm appeared the day I punched Austin Jackson in the nose. I didn't mean to slug him. His face just got in my way. It was a bruising end to a disastrous first month in middle school.
— Jenny Lundquist, The Charming Life of Izzy Malone
I'm also getting a piece of chocolate cake...	"Can I have a bite?" he asked, his voice smooth and sexy.	A bite of what? she wanted to ask, but didn't. She wasn't ready for that level of flirting. "Get your own slice, Gallagher."	"I can do that, Blake. I'm in the mood for something sweet it seems.
— Carrie Ann Ryan, Love Restored
You were as much in prison as anyone I knew there, Colin. Only you created it for yourself. Your father paced out the cell and your brothers fit the bars and you turned the key in the lock and buried it somewhere only you know. And you stared at Daniel through the bars and cursed him for being able to walk out the door. But he’s not the one who did something wrong. All he did was save himself. And you can too. But you have to find that key and unlock the door.
— Roan Parrish, Out of Nowhere
a generation:the black night gave me black eyesstill I use them to seek the light
— Gu Cheng
Maybe it was time to cut the strings of everyone’s expectations and free-fall for once in her life
— Miranda Liasson, A Man of Honor
Fall in love with you? How could I fall in love with you when I loved you with every breath, every heartbeat, every lash of the fucking whip? When you invaded my dreams, my hallucinations. I can’t stop loving you, bella. I’ve tried. God help me, I’ve tried.
— Skye Warren, Hold You Against Me
Before my mom decided she was a lesbian, I thought lesbians were all these really nice, earthy, crunchy, let's smother you with our twenty extra pounds of lady love and fight the power people.
— Alison Umminger
If you could do anything right now, at this moment, what would you do?”The question was obviously loaded, but the answer was surprisingly simple,“I’d be with you.
— A.B.  Turner, Changes
He’d never be the kind of man she deserved, whole and strong, not physically and mentally crippled.
— Miranda Liasson, A Man of Honor
Kiss after wet kiss, he devoured her, almost a full year of pent-up desireunleashing in one terrible flood.
— Miranda Liasson, A Man of Honor
The war had changed him, inside and out, in ways he could never have fathomed.
— Miranda Liasson, A Man of Honor
And in that moment, he knew one thing. If it was possible to slay his dragons, he’d do it. For her.
— Miranda Liasson, A Man of Honor
A weathered cork sat inside the box lined with green velvet. It had turned a darker brown and was a little shriveled, but the name Moet & Chandon was still clearly visible.Vivien reached inside and pulled out her mother's cork. The one she'd searched for in the bed of red impatiens. To anyone else, it was nothing. Just a weathered piece of nothing. To Vivien, it was everything.
— Rachel Gibson, Just Kiss Me
In books, sometimes the foreshadowing is so obvious that you know what’s going to happen. But knowing what happens isn’t the same as knowing how it happens. Getting there is the best part.
— Emery Lord, The Start of Me and You
His words made me aware that the heart in my chest is a muscle like any other. It can hurt.
— Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything
She'd been hired to protect him. But he'd come to a place where he'd do anything, give anything, risk anything to protect her.
— Becky Wade, Her One and Only
You deserve more than just being our safety net
— Robin Benway, Emmy & Oliver
He was on the edge of a cliff. And he wasn’t jumping, he was diving, a huge swan dive, like those famous cliff-top divers in some exotic place he’d seen on television once. Only they landed safely, bodies cutting into seawater like knife blades.And his dive was a killing one.
— B.D. Roca, Happy Birthday
When you're lucky enough to catch lightning in a bottle, you put the lid on as fast as you can.
— Emily McKay, How Willa Got Her Groove Back
I wish I could stop this one moment, capture it, because I know it won’t last.Because a guy like him doesn’t stay in a woman’s life. He breezes through and leaves only havoc behind.
— J.C. Reed, Beautiful Distraction
Some people just don’t find their Prince Charming straight away, they have to search for him.
— Charlotte Fallowfield, Until We Collide
Callie, I feel like we’ve got something amazing. Something that’s going to last. I look at you , and I see my future. But it’s almost like we take two steps forward and four back, every time. You let me in a little, and then you push me away. I just need you to know that I’ll wait. I’ll be here for whatever you need, whenever. Just don’t shut me out, baby. Please.
— Codi Gary, Bad for Me
I’m begging you, for the love of all that’s filthy and wrong in this world, have a good time with tall, dark, and raspy, okay?
— Terri L. Austin, His Kind of Trouble
down. There just was no way someone that good looking was getting made fun of. Plus guys could sleep with a whole team and it would be okay. Talk about double standards.
— J.L. Beck, Bittersweet Revenge
I've read dozens of interviews and accounts that basically come down to How Poets Do It and the truth is they're all do-lally and they're all different. There's Gerard Manly Hopkins in his black Jesuit clothes lying face down on the ground to look at an individual bluebell, Robert Frost who never used a desk, was once caught short by a poem coming and wrote it on the sole of his shoe, T.S. Eliot in his I'm-not-a-Poet suit with his solid sensible available-for-poetry three hours a day, Ted Hughes folded into his tiny cubicle at the top of the stairs where there is no window, no sight or smell of earth or animal but the rain clatter on the roof bows him to the page, Pablo Neruda who grandly declared poetry should only ever be handwritten, and then added his own little bit of bonkers by saying: in green ink. Poets are their own nation. Most of them know.
— Niall Williams, History of the Rain
He reached for her hand. She jerked her head up, eyes wide. “Stay,” he repeated. “I could use the company.” She hesitated. A rueful smile pulled at his lips. “I promise I won’t try to kiss you again…tonight.
— J.K. Coi, Protecting His Assets
Life had a funny way of kicking you in the gut when you weren't looking.~Torn~ by S. Nelson
— S Nelson*
My mouth went dry as I tried to remember all of Poppie’s tips for kissing over the years. She told me no guy wanted a girl with a mouth as wide as a guppy, who sucked his tongue with the force of a Dyson vacuum cleaner first time, or licked him to death like an overeager puppy. She’d told me to just purse my lips and let him lead and take control. Don’t slobber, don’t slobber, don’t slobber, I chanted to myself as he got closer and closer
— Charlotte Fallowfield, Until We Collide
How have you always felt?” he wondered.“Loved.” Her eyes opened and met his. “Wanted, happy, excited. A little sad.”He felt himself stiffen. “Why sad?”“Because it always feels like one lifetime with you just isn’t enough.
— Airicka Phoenix, Always Yours, Baby
I am neither modern nor ancient - just contemporary, as every Guru was. If one is not relevant for today, what is the point?
— Sadghuru
Fact: Cells are constantly dying and new ones are taking their placeFact: After seven years have gone by, every cell in my body has died and a new one has taken its place.Do the math. That means that every seven years, I'm a totally new me. not one of the old cells remains. Twice, I've had a total makeover
— Jill Wolfson, Cold Hands, Warm Heart
Attack me already. Please! I can’t take it anymore.But I don’t say any of that. I just savor each and every slow, amazing, and tongue-free kiss. Maybe he was born without a tongue, I think for a brief second, but then I realize that I am dumb because he wouldn’t be able to talk if he had been, now would he?
— Jillian Dodd, Kiss Me
You want something, you go after it, and you hang on to it
— Joya Ryan, Chasing Desire
It's sad that bad things have to happen in order for us to stop and look around.
— Megan Duke, Infinite Limits: A Conclusion to Small Circles
In the mind of the kid in skinny jeans leading the worship band, there isn’t a large enough gap between holiness and sinfulness, truth and error, demons and angels, or heaven and hell.
— Kevin Swanson
Love is a risk. It always is. None of us is guaranteed a long life. But love takes courage.
— Amy Andrews, Ask Me Nicely
I love you like the woman I am now. Not the girl I was. I’m battered and bruised and I’m tougher, but I’m still here. I’m scared to death, but I’m more frightened of a life without you.
— Amy Andrews, Ask Me Nicely
Mending a broken heart isn't easy. It's messy and complicated, but when it's finished, it's stronger than ever.
— Megan Duke, Infinite Limits: A Conclusion to Small Circles
You have no idea how dirty I can play.” He laughed. “Bring. It. On.
— Amy Andrews, Ask Me Nicely
Happiness comes in many forms. Whether through a passion for something or someone, it makes no difference. The results are the same: you live.
— Megan Duke, Infinite Limits: A Conclusion to Small Circles
Hot. I’ve been upgraded to hot.No one has ever called me hot. Cute? Yes. Adorable? yes, often and it makes me want to punch them. I didn’t know short girls could even be hot. I thought I’d been permanently relegated to elfin-pixie-child status.
— Stephanie Perkins, Isla and the Happily Ever After
No, this was Philly. Drunks here boo Santa and get in more trouble than a dog with an Easter basket, and like the dog, they usually end up either sick or dead. Ah yes, another lovely eve in the big city.
— Kym Grosso, Kade's Dark Embrace
I used to think that distance makes the heart grow fonder, but I guess it’s more so of a case-by-case thing when I look at it now. It especially doesn’t help when most of the time, when forced to reckon with the realities of things, you have your illusions occupying you.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
Keep a logical but open mind. What one may pass off as a psychological dysfunction could be a burst of imagination at its finest.
— Lauren Lola
I didn't put him in his place. I was acknowledging his blind spot. We all have them. It just takes the right push to be able to really see them.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
It was all in the means of expressing himself without anyone having to ever understand it.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
I'm agnostic. By definition, I'm unsure of what to believe in, but I'm also borderline-capable of believing in anything and everything, or nothing at all... and I want to believe in something.
— Lauren Lola, A Moment's Worth
I love you Bonnie. So much that I hurt with it. And I hate it, and I love it, and I want it to go away, and i want it to stay forever....
— Amy Harmon, Infinity + One
Follow your heart a little more and listen to your head a little less.
— Fabiola Francisco, Perfectly Imperfect
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.
— Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Snakes don't have fuckin' legs, so how was I supposed to think there'd be one hidin' in the face of a damn rock that's ten feet below the summit?
— Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction
I kind of thought actually that Trevor was gone completely mental when he called up here a few weeks ago. Like, why would he not text or email or Facebook? What's with all the reality, I thought. Does he not know he's a million times cooler in virtual form?
— Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart
I cannot believe I have been duped, not once but twice. My three years gaining a degree in psychology was clearly a waste of time. I might as well have studied Klingon.
— Susan Lodge, The Man in the Buff Breeches
When Grant Blue reaches me, he bends his head down close enough that I can smell the soap and promise on his skin. Clean living and popularity—It’s quite the aftershave, let me tell you. If I’m being honest, the fact that he even has to bend to talk to me is making me want to swoon a little. ...But just a little.
— Isobel Irons, Promiscuous
For God's sake, don't let her watch Cinderella. What kind of example is that? A mindless twit who can't even remember where she left her damn shoe, so she has to wait for some douchebag in tights to bring it to her? Give me a frigging break!
You're doing it wrong.""Son, I've got a gun to your chest and you're telling me that I'm doing it wrong?""Yes""How?""Closer isn't better." He disarmed her with a swift motion, then offered the weapon back to her. "Further away you are, the less unpredictable I can be."Della's eyes had opened wide with surprise, but she recovered fast. Took the shotgun back and said, "Okay. Knock again so we can start over.
— S.E. Jakes, Long Time Gone
Everything was on television last night
— Don DeLillo, White Noise
She looked up and their eyes locked. “Want to be my birthday present?” she asked in a breathy whisper.Chase’s mother didn’t raise any fools. He released her hips and trailed his hand down her arm until their fingers entwined.“Let’s get out of here.”He tugged her from the dance floor, trying not to rush like he was running from a fire. But, damn. There was a fire in his britches.
— Tamara Hoffa, Chasing Love
Most of my dates had consisted of some guy trying to sweet-talk me while I silently prayed for an asteroid to crash into whatever diner we were at.
— Stephanie Nelson, Instilling Ethics
The only people who need to fear me, are those that hurt you..." - TDS, Seven Dirty Words
— Charlotte V. Howard, Seven Dirty Words
When you kissed me…I felt special.I never really felt like I deserved it.That isn’t your fault. That was me.When I looked down the aisle on our wedding day and you weren’t there, my first thought, as awful as this sounds, wasn’t, “Where is he?” it was, “Oh, it figures.
— Virginia Nelson
uh, yeah, I love...worms" Classic. Someone should record the gold that flows from my mouth.
— Rachel Van Dyken, Elite
What are friends for, but to help each other get through bad times and have multiple orgasms?
— Elizabeth Morgan, Creak
No good deed goes unpunished - Oscar Wilde
— Allen Mack
Eat your heart out. Oh, wait. You can’t. It’s not organic.
— Susan Elizabeth Phillips, The Great Escape
I want you both." I said quietly, not caring that my cheeks had grown warmer. "I have for a while.""If we try this—" Tyler took a deep breath. "And it doesn't feel right—""We'll stop." Kacey promised as he slid his hand beneath my halter neck and began caressing my skin. "You say it baby, and we'll stop and forget all about it."My stomach flipped at the feel of his fingers circling my navel. "And if I don't want to stop?"An unreadable look crossed Tyler’s face and my heart skipped as Kacey moved behind me. The warmth of his body seeped into my back, while his fingers painted trails of heat across my abdomen and along my ribs."Then what happens in Silver Creek, stays in Silver Creek. Unless you decide otherwise." Kacey pressed his lips to my ear. A shiver ran down my neck and spine. "Does that sound fair?
— Elizabeth Morgan, Creak
All women should feel as Sex Subjects if they want and choose so without fear of repressions, condemnations and put down and without the need to pay them for that.Being freely a sexy and seductive woman is allowed only for few privileged professions: actresses, dancers, models, singers, prostitutes. They all do it for work. You can pay for them being sexy.If a sexy woman is openly adored by a man, the woman remains as a woman, she is not turning into a table, a cup or a bill of money. She is still the Subject who knows her power.
— Mai Loog, Mango Maiden
Right, I can't watch this shit." Kacey grunted as he got up. "It's one thing getting a hard-on over you, baby girl. The fact that Tyler happens to be in the picture…I'm freaking slightly.
— Elizabeth Morgan, Creak
We need to get you laid."Despite the fact she couldn't see my face, my brow furrowed. "How is that going to help?""Rebound sex is exactly what you need right now, sweaty, dirty, work-your-frustration-out sex. In fact, I have the perfect guy in mind—"I jolted up quickly at the sound of a firm tapping. I looked over at the window to see Kacey's sun kissed face, his shades resting at the edge of his long nose, baby blue eyes fixed on me.I placed my hand over my thumping heart. "You ass.""Bitch?""Not you, Jayne." I climbed off my bed. "Kay and Ty are here.""Speak of the devil, and his sexy ass will most definitely appear.
— Elizabeth Morgan, Creak
A day without someone to hold you or a day without someone to share, is a day easily forgotten.’ - Vera Richardson in Mr Alhourani's Dead Man's Spots
— D.M. Lee, Mr Alhourani's Dead Man's Spots
I came here because it's pine-dark and the ocean is wild. The kind of quiet-noise you need when there's too much going on in your head. Like the water and the woods are doing all the feeling, and I can hang out, quiet as a headstone, in a between place. A blank I can bear.
— Amy McNamara, Lovely, Dark and Deep
If you have just one person believe in you, you'll always find your way
— Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You
There is no happiness like mine.I have been eating poetry.
— Mark Strand
You're not Dostoevsky,' said the citizeness, who was getting muddled by Koroviev. Well, who knows, who knows,' he replied. 'Dostoevsky's dead,' said the citizeness, but somehow not very confidently. 'I protest!' Behemoth exclaimed hotly. 'Dostoevsky is immortal!
— Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
I've always been famous, it's just no one knew it yet.
— Lady Gaga
If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare me a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.
— Albert Einstein
I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.
— Jimi Hendrix
Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything.
— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
If a man can bridge the gap between life and death,if he can live after he's died, then maybe he was a great man. Immortality is the only true success.
— James  Dean
In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.
— Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.
— Erica Jong
We're in Des Moines, Iowa today, were in Omaha, Nebraska yesterday and Boise, Idaho the day before. When we landed at the airport in Boise, from Portland, Oregon this lady from our plane came up from behind as we walked down the terminal. She approached me and said "Taylor, I just love your song and want to wish you great things in you career." I looked and her and said "Well, THANK YOU!" and then said " who did you talk to?". (and then pointed to my Mom and the Label rep we were traveling with) I was convinced that one of them had talked to the lady on the plane and told her about me and my song. The lady said "neither one" and then I said "Well, how did you know who I was?" and the lady said "because I listen to radio and I watched your video". This was the first time someone had actually KNOWN who I was and MY NAME. wow. I just walked over and hugged her, and said ...."You're the first person who's ever done that, thankyou." It was an amazing moment to remember, and I always will.
— Taylor Swift
How do you judge the brightness of a light when you’re the source? A spotlight can never see the shadows it casts.
— Neal Shusterman, UnWholly
You haven't lived until you've basked in the adoration of people.
— Jerry Spinelli, Love, Stargirl
Being famous is wicked, but being normal is better.
— Rupert Grint
I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it.
— George Bernard Shaw
Fame is finally only the sum total of all the misunderstanding that can gather around a new name.
— Rainer Maria Rilke
Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.
— Bob Dylan
If I blow my nose, it gets written all over the world.
— Audrey Hepburn
I think I know what military fame is
—  to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.
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
Foolish names and foolish faces often appear in public places.
— Curtis Sittenfeld, American Wife
Think champagne, drink champagne!
— Ellen Dean
A few names have survived oblivion. In time, oblivion will have them all.
— Marty Rubin
What a waste of time to be posthumously famous.
— Orson Scott Card
Heroes must see to their own fame. No one else will.
— Gore Vidal, Julian
You just wait. I'm going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.
— Bruce Lee
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
LaMont, the truth is that the world is incredibly, incredibly, unbelievably old. You suffer with the stunted desire caused by one of its oldest lies. Do not believe the photographs. Fame is not the exit from any cage.
— David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Fame Imperishable and glory that will never die -- that is what we march for!
— Steven Pressfield, The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great
Fame is the responsibility, the perennial discipline, the concubine who solicits and imbibes, bit by bit, the love, the relations, the serenity, and the soul, leaving behind the subaqueous plaudits that pinch to the core.. 
— Himmilicious, The Clicked Shutterbug.
He understood then that all his exploits as a reporter, the feats that had won him such recognition and fame, were merely an attempt to keep his most ancient fears at bay, a stratagem for taking refuge behind a lens to test whether reality was more tolerable from that perspective.
— Isabel Allende
Fame is a perverse deformity, an ego swelling as ludicrous as an extra organ, and the people that have it, for a huge part, are willfully and deliberately fucked-up past the point of ever having anything sweet or human or normal about themselves ever again.
— Cintra Wilson, A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as Grotesque Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations
I wish that being famous helped prevent me from being constipated.
— Marvin Gaye
If fame came near to you to get you, you must run away from it very fast! Because this is a matter of freedom and captivity!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
We're famous" iggy whispered so low that Fang could barely hear him."So's Swine Flu" Fang whispered back.
— James Patterson, Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
Fame is also won at the expense of others. Even the well-deserved honors of the scientist or man of learning are unfair to many persons of equal achievements who get none. When one man gets a place in the sun, the others are put in a denser shade. From the point of view of the whole group there's no gain whatsoever, and perhaps a loss.
— B.F. Skinner, Walden Two
I shall bere your noble fame, for ye spake a grete worde and fulfilled it worshipfully.
— Thomas Malory, Complete Works
Well, I wasn't going to abuse him. I was only going to ask: Is there any quality which distinguishes his work from that of twenty struggling writers one could name? Of course not. He's a clever, prolific man; so are they. But he began with money and friends; he came from Oxford into the thick of advertised people; his name was mentioned in print six times a week before he had written a dozen articles. This kind of thing will become the rule. Men won't succeed in literature that they may get into society, but will get into society that they may succeed in literature.
— George Gissing, New Grub Street
Comfort me by a solemn Assurance, that when the little Parlour in which I sit at this Instant, shall be reduced to a worse furnished Box, I shall be read, with Honour, by those who never knew nor saw me, and whom I shall neither know nor see.
— Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
A person who's going to be famous usually drops a few clues by the time they're twenty-one.
— Frank D. Gilroy, The Subject Was Roses
Many of the younger generation know my name in a vague way and connect it with grotesque inventions, but don't believe that I ever existed as a person. They think I am a nonperson, just a name that signifies a tangled web of pipes or wires or strings that suggest machinery. My name to them is like a spiral staircase, veal cutlets, barber's itch—terms that give you an immediate picture of what they mean.
— Rube Goldberg, Inventions: The Legendary Works (A) of America’s (B) Most Honored (C) Cartoonist
To be the cynosure of all eyes, do the extraordinary when you are least expected.
— Ogwo David Emenike
Cattle die, kinsmen die, you yourself must also die, but he who wins word fame lives forever
— Hávamál - The sayings of the high one
Fantastic,” I said without an ounce of enthusiasm. “I’m just one more embarrassing confession away from taking over the world.” --Spencer Nye
— Jason Letts, Suspense
Innocent like the first dreamsA few words dropped on the paper;Contaminated they were by the surrounding air,Fame swarmed, naivety disappeared!
— Neelam Saxena Chandra
So many stars in the sky, each unique and full of destiny. I wanted more than anything to be part of those stars.I never realized becoming one would destroy me.
— Tracy Krimmer, All That Glitters
My ‘Feed me Fame’ slogan during the first half course of my life was seen as ‘Treat me Lame’ by the people and it was not literal until I found a typo in one of my articles one day I wrote for a personal use.
— Bhavik Sarkhedi
I'm the most famous person, problem is people don't know it yet…
— Kevin Focke
Fame is such a waste. It can't even be recycled.
— Sumana Roy
There are never any real stars in LA, but we’ve got a bunch of fake ones made out of brass and terrazzo. We embed them in the sidewalks outside of strip clubs and gift shops— Walk of Fame, walk of shame… walk of names we’re all destined to forget sooner or later.
— Kris Kidd
Everything is much easier in the half-blind and half-deaf world of modern giants that seduce processions of the blind into the world of great emptiness. In their sky the stars shine and their names live in the parallel and independently of their work.
— Dejan Stojanovic, Serbian Satire and Aphorisms
I understand that comes with the territory, and that celebrities have a contract with the public: they get to be the target of jealousy and criticism, and sometimes admiration, in exchange for money and recognition. But I let that contract run out a while ago. It is not my job to be pretty, or cute, or anything that someone else wants me to be.
— Mara Wilson, Where Am I Now?
The bigger the star, the bigger the target.
— Michael Jackson
The ovation roared around him. He felt nothing in particular, hardly even the embarrassment he had feared. He had to go up again—this time without Fräulein Gasteiner, and it was a little peculiar to him to hear the noise of clapping hands and the loud shouts of "Bravo". He bowed several times, turned to the door and then, just as the clapping was getting weaker, he heard a voice from slightly behind him, or to the side—he couldn't quite tell—but the words were perfectly distinct, no matter how quietly they had been said: "Poor devil!" He wanted to look around, but he felt that that would seem absurd.
— Arthur Schnitzler, Später Ruhm: Novelle
Vell, Zaphod’s just zis guy, you know?
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
When we were young, not so long agoFame was my favorite television show,Lydia brought out the dancer in you and me,There was Coco, Holly and Shorofsky,Glued to my set to watch them dance and actLeroy was my favorite dancer on that setCleo really won my heart; she later rose to “Fame”I will never forget Irene Cara’s song “Remember My Name
— Charmaine J. Forde
Work neither for fame nor profit. An artist should aspire only to inspire.
— Hayden Pearton
That's what mild television fame is like: it's like walking through the world with your fly down.
— Dave Holmes
In this age where people can become famous without doing anything, we are now encouraging a literary and publishing atmosphere where you must become famous before you can do anything.
— Daniel R. Thorne
But one has to ask: why do the big things at such a high cost? I chose the quiet life. I like the idea of being recognized by my field and no one else. This way I have a purpose, one I believe in, but I'm not burdened by the constant idea of putting on a public image, a view of myself the masses can accept. Nobody cares whether I'm fat or cheat on my taxes. It is not the only right kind of life, of course, but it is the honest life for me. What I'm saying is, I make the right choices for myself.
— Jaroslav Kalfar, Spaceman of Bohemia
...fame is something other people hand you, while success is what you define for yourself.
— Jennifer Mason-Black, Devil and the Bluebird
While yes, it’s good to have a fair amount of haters, it’s not good to have them on the street, where their anonymity can let them slip away without serious repercussions if they slight you, and this made me realize that fame, on its own, without fear, actually totally fucking sucks.
— A.D. Aliwat, Alpha
Fame is the accumulation of misunderstandings around a well-known name
— Gregory Benford, Foundation's Fear
I'm a role model now. ... I want to be a better person because I don't want to disappoint those girls. I stop and think about my actions more. I tip great, I try not to swear too much, and I remember to thank people and be grateful. And all that stuff I do to "appear' better has actually made me a better person. I wish I had always acted like I was a little bit famous.
— Mindy Kaling
Fame had kept me from getting laid that night. Fame would make it so other people would bother me, follow me around with cameras, be all up in my shit, keep me from doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. Fame could even potentially kill me. It killed a lot of people: John Lennon, Princess Diana, Selena.
— A.D. Aliwat, Alpha
A friend of mine, Warren Lemming, has this theory: if you’re famous, it’s as if you’ve got a golden monkey on your shoulder. When people come up to talk to you, they just see the monkey.
— Heathcote Williams
I cannot deal with obscurity for more than a few decades before I get the worst ache in my chest.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Flies to Wanton Boys
It was not impulse.It was not lust.It was not wrath, or boredom, or desperation.People remembered the saints because they had their tokens.
— Pam   Jones
Fame clearly breeds a false sense of security.
— Eric Reynolds
One man came up to me at a taco stand and said, "I have no idea who you are, but I can see everyone is staring at you, so you must be somebody. I just wanted to tell you that you are not that special. You're no more special than me." I looked at him with a mouth full of food and managed to say, "Thanks. I agree," and promptly asked the waitress for a to go box.
— Jewel, Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story
Who was he if not destined for fame?
— Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
His being famous didn’t give him a right to use her and treat her like dirt.
— Michelle Madow, Diamonds are Forever
Brevity Is Best: Nicknamed "Silent Cal," President Calvin Coolidge was once challenged by a reporter, saying, "I bet someone that I could get more than two words out of you." Coolidge responded, "You lose." The notion of crafting six word memoirs really took off after Smith Magazine shared this poignant one written by Ernest Hemingway: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." Pithiness Pays Off For Other Reasons: When required to be brief, for example, we gain clarity about what we really mean -- or have to offer. As Mark Twain once wrote, in a slower-paced time, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.
— Kare Anderson, Mutuality Matters How You Can Create More Opportunity, Adventure & Friendship With Others
Privacy is something you can sell, but you can't buy it back.
— Bob Dylan
Fame is vanity's bait.
— Toba Beta
It's not the game, Zee. It's the fame. Everyone wants to be affiliated with a winner.
— S.M. Parker, The Girl Who Fell
Fame is not gifted, you have to earn it.
— sahil singh
Whether it was by someone volunteering to be an extra in our show, or part of the crew, or someone buying a DVD at a convention, or a superfan who tattooed our characters' faces on her calf, my career has been built fan by fan. I wouldn't trade that relationship, or collection of dolls of myself, for all the money and fame in the world.
— Felicia Day, You're Never Weird on the Internet
All the best! You are a local legend in a Brisbane and Australia...you probably don't realise just how much...you will get released from that hell hole...you will come home...and discover your 'celebrity status'...which you will probably find nearly as hard to cope with...a different version of hell...anonymity to global fame...what a remarkable journey your life is. Keep safe...head down...this will pass.
— Paige Garland, Prison post: Letters of support for Peter Greste
When one wants to be famous, one has to dive gracefully into rivers of the blood of cannon-blasted bodies.
— Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror and Poems
I have arrived more definitely than any other painter during his lifetime
—  honours shower upon me from every side
Fame for the lames, fortune for the brains.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
When everyone is famous, no one will be famous.
— michael p naughton
Don’t rush to rise to fame, lest you will be lashed in shame
— Bernard Kelvin Clive
What if, you know—what if hanging out with Griffo Gerritszoon wasn’t always that great? What if he was weird and dreamy? What if the best part of him was the shapes he could make with metal? That part of him really is immortal. It’s as immortal as anything’s going to get.
— Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
It’s relatively easy to act nice and normal in front of a crowd, or in public. The tricky part is doing it in private.
— Robert  Black
No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark where no one will ever know or see.
— J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5: The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Vol. 5
...as if Hollywood were the name of the enchanted forest where you loose yourself and find yourself, again; the wood that changes you; the wood where you go mad; the wood where the shadows life longer than you do.
— Angela Carter, Wise Children
Fame is proof that people are gullible.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Gandhi sacrificed India for his own fame and recognition. Without Gandhi, there would have been a different India; a very masculine one.
— M.F. Moonzajer, LOVE, HATRED AND MADNESS
Honor is due to God and to persons of great excellence as a sign of attestation of excellence already existing
—  not that honor makes them excellent.
Television isn't any longer the only way to fame, all you need is the internet to break into the game
— Stanley Victor Paskavich
When we call a philosopher distinguished, we are not saying that she is worthy and not saying that she is recognized, but we are saying that she occupies the intersection of both – that she is recognized and worthy; even that she is recognized because she's worthy. In the case of arate, the direction of the "because" can seem a little vaguer, so that it can sometimes seem almost as if someone is regarded as worthy because they are recognized.
— Rebecca Goldstein, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
Kleos is sometimes translated as "acoustic renown" the spreading renown you get from people talking about your exploits. It's a bit like having a large Twitter following.
— Rebecca Goldstein, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
This pervasive craving to be recognized as special amounted to an abdication of power, an outsourcing of your core responsibilities. I spurned the fawning of strangers, but I did feel special to myself. I had found that "feeling special" was a private experience, and no one else's projected fascination could substitute for quiet absorption in your own life.
— Lionel Shriver, Big Brother
I never wanted to be prominent enough to have enemies.
— Rabih Alameddine
The American people are strange in their attitudes toward their idols," he (Taft) mused. They lead them on and then "cut their legs from under them," simply "to make their fall all the greater.
— Doris Kearns Goodwin
we've learned an interesting rule about fame. Those who seem desperate for it are the people that others least want to see.
— Jeanne Ryan, Nerve
Fame is nothing but the sum of all the misunderstandings that cluster around a new name…Wherever a human achievement becomes truly great, it seeks to hide its face in the lap of general, nameless greatness.
— Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Life
Your name still rings a bell when you say something good, not by causing catastrophe in a bid to sound more interesting.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
I have heard the most fantastical gossip about myself and each time I thought, "If only my life were that exciting, fun, outrageous, and sexy". Then again my memory wasn't so sharp when I took drugs. Some of what was said about me might be true. At worst it gave me jerk-off material.
— Aiden Shaw, Sordid Truths: Selling My Innocence for a Taste of Stardom
Though you can get smart from reading everything that a smart person writes, you cannot get famous from reading about everything that a famous person does or is said to have done.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana, N for Nigger: Aphorisms for Grown Children and Childish Grown-ups
The charm of fame is so great, that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.
— Blaise Pascal, Pensées
Italian-Americans in New York had not been in much of a flag-waving mood prior to DiMaggio's arrival. By the All-Star break, the rookie had established himself as a wonderful player (.358, 10HR, 60 RBIs), fully justifying the acclaim. But Gehrig was even better (.399, 20 HR, 61 RBIs). He was leading the league in nearly every category, including invisibility.
— Jonathan Eig, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
Most people don’t understand performers are really sheltered and protected so much sometimes that they don’t get a chance to live their lives.
— Diana Ross
Be What You Want To Be,Not Who Others Wants To See
— Noor Marwan
If you act like a rock star you will be treated like one.
— Marilyn Manson, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell
What I really wanted... wasn't fame. All I wanted was to know... whether or not I should've been born. Huff... I can't even shout anymore. Luffy, listen to my next words carefully. Tell everybody what I say to you. Pops!! Fellow pirates!! And... Luffy... I've always been such a hopeless person... huff huff... I was demon spawn... the son of the devil!! Thank you... for loving me!!
— Portugas D. Ace
Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.
— Will Cuppy
People forget your face after a book tour or an infrequent appearance on Letterman, but put your face on your books and you're handing them your life. They presume to know what you think or who you are.
— Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley
Fame & fortune come with a price that fame finds insulting and fortune can't afford to pay back.
— Dean Cavanagh
The Hall Of Fame Is Built On Quicksand
— Dean Cavanagh
Good choice,' Laura Said. 'Our neighbour, Mrs Crabtree, came round this morning and she put it best. Her theory is that fame is like a bubble. It looks gorgeous on the outside, as if it's been painted with pretty colours, but when you pop it there's nothing there. She said that life, love and friendship are what matters, and that what you do is more important than what you show.
— Lauren St. John, Rendezvous in Russia
I should never have dreamed of purpose, I am coming to the conclusion that privacy, the small individual lives of men, are preferable to all this inflated macrocosmic activity.
— Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
Fame turns out to be a powerful instrument of grace because it humbles its chosen victims in a hurry. You sail into it, your canvas swelled with grandiosity, and when your fifteen minutes are over and you are becalmed, you realize that grandiosity cannot take you where you need to go.Only then do you learn to row like hell, asking God for the strength to stay afloat.
— Erica Jong, Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir
Nothing in life was ever clearly drawn, obviously just, or totally emotionally satisfying, but the moment-to-moment stuff of reality featured infinitely more complication, sleaze, struggle, true beauty, unfairness, profundity, passion, and depth of consciousness than she, in her frantic struggle to be somebody other than her unspectacular self, had been previously aware of. page 302
— Cintra Wilson, Colors Insulting To Nature
Opulence and fame will shorten your life, ask for long life, and you'll enjoy the former in small quantities, for it is a substitute.
— Michael Bassey Johnson, Classic Quotations From The Otherworlds
I missed the crowds in those big stadiums, the flashbulbs, the roaring cheers - the majesty of the whole thing. I missed it bitterly. So did my father. We shared a thirst to return; unspoken, undeniable.
— Mitch Albom, For One More Day
I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public
—  they forget that invisibility is a superpower.
So many people hate me and love me for the exact same reasons. This is all the proof I need that my opinion about myself is the only opinion I should ever care about.
— Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing
Ah my friend, if you and I could escape this fray and live forever, never a trace of age, immortal, I would never fight on the front lines again or command you to the field where men win fame.
— Homer, The Iliad
Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.
— Shirley Temple Black
My fame will outshine that of Victor Hugo or Napoleon.
— Raymond Roussel
I make a living, even life and death judgments, by reading peoples' body language, their raw reactions to situations. And I'd almos swear you've never seen those documents before.""Well," Aidan said, swallowing hard, calculating what fame and money had cost him. "I'd say you're damn good at your job, because I haven't.
— Laura Spinella, Perfect Timing
The day will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches from my invention, but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do anything worthy of attention.
— John Fitch
He was the best shot in India, and I expect that there are few better in London. Have you heard the name?''No, I have not.''Well, well, such is fame!
— Arthur Conan Doyle, The Return of Sherlock Holmes
A famous name has this peculiarity that it becomes gradually smaller especially in natural sciences where each succeeding discovery invariably overshadows what precedes.
— Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
Climbing towards fame, recognition and popularity is very much pleasant; but all its sweetness does not count even for a day of going down.
— M.F. Moonzajer
And now, finished with that puzzling mixture of insane intimacy and isolation which is notoriety, Velvet was able to get on quietly to her next adventures.
— Enid Bagnold, National Velvet
So you want to be famous? You want to inspire large groups of people? You want to be recognized and appreciated by thousands or even millions? Stop trying to do it by speaking to the masses. Do it by speaking to individuals. If what you have is truly amazing and unique and worth sharing, individuals will share it. It is always about the individual, no matter how big you get. Remember that.
— Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing
In the inverted food chain of fame, it was the big beasts who were stalked and hunted
— Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo's Calling
You know you’re really famous when there’s rumors about you being gay.
— Jared Leto
A celebrity is an object that the media manufactures today, just so they have a subject tomorrow.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana
For I see not what there is desirable in publick esteeme, were I able to acquire & maintaine it. It would perhaps increase my acquaintance, the thing which I chiefly study to decline.
— Isaac Newton
Because personally I think mattering is a piss-poor idea. I just want to fly under the radar, because when you start to make yourself into a big deal, that’s when you get shot down. The bigger a deal you are, the worse your life is.
— John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
Sun glasses are the unofficial celebrities’ uniform.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana
They’ve not forgotten him: worse, they never heard of him.
— John Updike, Rabbit, Run
When people don't gossip or talk about you, you are not making waves.
— Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
He might be famous (local newspaper or television) for finding it, true—but if fame takes away the thing it celebrates, then Sebastien would prefer the inspired silence. We’re all famous in our own hearts anyway.
— Simon Van Booy, The Illusion of Separateness
Integrity of life is fame's best friend,Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.
— John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
No star fades faster than that of a high school athlete.
— John Grisham, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
Your fans, they love you erratic, charmingly gut-shot. They place the rose in your teeth, and you live off the thorns.
— Shay Caroline, Gemini/Scorpio/Capricorn
Fame is a devil; obscurity is an Angel! Stay away from me, Devil; Come near to me, Angel!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
To put an arrogant 'famous' singer in her place: pretend to be deaf.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana
She cracked a sexy smile with a side of condescension. “Jack, I’m not looking to know you.”No, she wasn’t, unless you counted biblically. She was looking for the guy who indiscriminately dated and bedded famous women. A guy whose life could be reduced to adjectives, most of them unflattering. That guy.
— Kate Meader, Feel the Heat
Most people inherit success and fame
—  if you have earned it piece by piece you will know how hard it is.
How can I have my 15 minutes of fame when open mics only allow you to perform for 10 minutes.
— R.K. Cowles, Tints Tones and Hues Volume III
Fame and recognition break all scandals
—  if I were a prostitute I would have chosen to be a famous one.
He who advances without seeking fame,Who retreats without escaping blame,He whose one aim is to protect his people and serve his lord,The man is a jewel of the Realm
— Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Spurious fame spreads from tongue to tongue like the fog of the early dawn before the sun rises.
— Rabindranath Tagore, Chitra - A Play in One Act
Fame is a bee.It has a song -It has a sting -Ah, too, it has a wing.
— Emily Dickinson
Why shouldn’t I? I demand silently. Why shouldn’t I become a famous writer? Like Norman Mailer. Or Philip Roth. And F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemmingway and all those other men. Why can’t I be like them? I mean, what is the point of becoming a writer if no one reads what you’ve written?Damn Viktor Greene and The New School. Why do I have to keep proving myself all of the time? Why can’t I be like L’il, with everyone praising and encouraging me? Or Rainbow, with her sense of entitlement. I bet Viktor Greene never asked Rainbow why she wanted to be a writer.Or what if-I wince-Viktor Greene is right? I’m not a writer after all.
— Candace Bushnell, Summer and the City
And so when you see a man often wearing the robe of office, when you see one whose name is famous in the Forum, do not envy him; those things are bought at the price of life. They will waste all their years, in order that they may have one year reckoned by their name.
— Seneca
Notoriety wasn't as good as fame, but was heaps better than obscurity.
— Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
Being famous is like a little bit of you is taken away and goes off and lives on its own and does what it wants... I wish it would do more interesting things!
— Russell Brand