Fame Vs Talent Quotes

I'm just a guy who happens to work in public from time to time. I've built a reputation as an established comic, not as a celebrity - a celebrity is someone who is famous but doesn't do anything.

Just because you sell lots of records it doesn't mean to say you're any good. Look at Phil Collins.

Now, being on the cover of Vanity Fair is as important as being in great movies. The lines are very, very blurred.

At first all I wanted to be was famous; then I realized that fame had nothing to do with talent. I felt that I didn't do anything quite well enough, that I was one of those people who was famous but not very talented. So I said, okay, I'll be the Dinah Shore of the Seventies, on TV all the time but nobody quite knows why.

I want to be an actor - I don't want to be a celebrity. They are two different things, and people have forgotten that they are different.

If you ask most people, 'Who's Lily Allen?,' they'll say, 'That girl who's in the papers all the time.' Not that girl who wrote songs.

I've been singing since I was 16 because I love it - I wanted to be a singer, not a star. There's a difference between wanting to be famous and wanting to sing well.

I suppose it's whether you want to be a famous person, or whether you want to be an actor. You have to decide what your priorities are. Great actor, huge star. Sometimes, the two walk hand in hand. Most of the time, they don't.

I didn't want to be a big star. I wanted to be a really good actor.

You can be very famous without being a great actress, and that's not good for me.

Most guitar players get a name because the band that they're in has become popular. That doesn't mean that they're particularly good, whereas conversely, you've got people like Albert Lee, an incredible player, one of my favourites who's not in a famous band, so he doesn't get into the popularity polls. I have to laugh at some of the people that do get into the popularity polls - some of them are so bad, but they're in a band that's at the top of the hit parade. I think people mix that up.

I think the reason you use an actor is if they are right for the role. Most of the high-profile stars tend to be good actors. That's probably what led to their fame. So if they are right for the movie, you can certainly use them. But I don't want to, not at all. Stardom and Hollywood overpower the ideas and the film.

I'm not in this business to win a popularity contest, I just want to be a good actor. Well, you've failed at being a good actor. Why not try for the popularity contest?

There's a lot of artists that are celebrities, not really artists.

Most people in TV are nice but there are some who just live in Egoville. They're not talented, they're just famous. I don't want to be like that.

We have this obsession with celebrity, where people can go on shows and makes millions of pounds from being completely talentless - Jade Goody, all that type of people - and it really gets to me. I'm not interested, I'm a musician. It's not about being famous and being a celeb.

I made a conscious decision back then that I would rather be the best actress who ever lived than the most famous one.

Sometimes you're famous before you're good.

I never wanted to become an actor to be famous. I just wanted to be a good actor. It served me pretty well.

As much as it's nice to step into that massive world of Hollywood and be a big, famous actor, I prefer the career of actors that have really chosen smartly and done really amazing performances. Maybe they're not as known, but their careers are a bit more interesting.

I think that 'celebrity' and 'chef' should be a permanent oxymoron.