“As for fame, fame felt like nothing. Fame was not a sensation like love or hunger or loneliness, welling from within and invisible to the outside eye. It was rather entirely external, coming from the minds of others. It existed in the way people looked at him or behaved towards him. In that, being famous was no different from being gay, or Jewish, or from a visible minority: you are who you are, and then people project onto you some notion they have.”

“Fame or infamy, either one is preferable to being forgotten when you have passed from this realm.”

“I think there are different kinds of fame. There's fame which is plastic and about paparazzi and money and being rich, and then there's the fame, which is when no one knows who you are but everyone wants to know who you are.”

“Do not let the fame come near to you! Protect your freedom! Fame must be avoided so as to breathe freely! Stay in the shadow to work comfortably! Away from the crowds, in the heart of calmness, there is wonderful peace of mind that no fame can ever give you!”

“The most stable, and therefore, the most healthy self-esteem is based on deserved respect from others rather than on external fame or celebrity and unwarranted adulation.”

“And no renown can render you well-known:For if you think that fame can lengthen life By mortal famousness immortalized,The day will come that takes your fame as well,And there a second death for you awaits.”