If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Celebrity can consume a person's true identity, causing them to lose themselves in their public persona.
In this quote, John Updike reflects on the nature of celebrity and its impact on individuals. He suggests that the fame and attention associated with being a celebrity act as a mask that not only conceals the true self but also alters it, leading to a dissonance between one's public image and private identity. This implies that the pursuit of fame can ultimately result in a loss of authenticity, as the facade becomes more prominent than the genuine self.
Themes
CelebrityIdentityFameMaskAuthenticity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of social media on personal identity, this quote can highlight the challenges of maintaining authenticity.
More from John Updike
All quotes βDost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
John UpdikeRead
Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
John UpdikeRead
But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.
John UpdikeRead
The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
John UpdikeRead
To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
John UpdikeRead
Similar quotes
The most striking contradiction of our civilization is the fundamental reverence for truth which we profess and the thorough-going disregard for it which we practice.
Vilhjalmur StefanssonRead
This is not a matter of virtue-it's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default-setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.
David Foster WallaceRead
Our nearly century-long experiment in banning marijuana has failed as abysmally as Prohibition did... In contrast, legalizing and taxing marijuana would bring in substantial sums that could be used to pay for schools, libraries or early childhood education.
Nicholas D. KristofRead
The network told me to get rid of Number One, the woman first lieutenant, and also get rid of 'that Martian fellow'... meaning, of course, Spock. I knew I couldn't keep both, so I gave the stoicism of the female officer to Spock, and married the actress who played Number One. Thank God it wasn't the other way around. I mean Leonard's cute, but...
Gene RoddenberryRead
Saving the world was merely a hobby. My *vocation* has been that of_x000D_ inspector of desert water holes.
Edward AbbeyRead
There's nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.
Thornton WilderRead