Lapham’s Quarterly

Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.

What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.

I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God.

Reality is always the foe of famous names.

I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.

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

I am sick and tired of publicity. I want no more of it. It puts me in a bad light. I just want to be forgotten.

If fame is only to come after death, I am in no hurry for it.