The trouble with righting some wrongs is that it makes the remaining ones seem even more unbearable.
A. A. GillRead
Celebrity is a national drama whose characters' parts and plots are written by the tabloids, gossip columnists, websites and interactive buttons. The famous don't actually have to turn up to their own lives at all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Celebrity culture often distorts reality, with media shaping the narratives of famous individuals.
A. A. Gill's quote suggests that celebrity is a constructed reality, where the media plays a significant role in determining the narrative of a person's life. The famous people depicted in tabloids and gossip columns may not even participate in or be aware of the stories crafted about them, highlighting the disconnect between their public persona and private experiences. It raises questions about authenticity in the lives of celebrities and the influence of the media in shaping public perception.
Themes
CelebrityMediaIllusionNarrativePublic Perception
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the influence of social media, one might say, 'As A. A. Gill remarked, celebrity is a national drama, often scripted by the tabloids.'
More from A. A. Gill
All quotes →If the world were to end tomorrow and we could choose to save only one thing as the explanation and memorial to who we were, then we couldn't do better than the Natural History Museum, although it wouldn't contain a single human. The systematic Linnean order, the vast inquisitiveness and range of collated knowledge and beauty would tell all that is the best of us.
A. A. GillRead
Sport is how poor kids from poor countries pass through the eye of the needle to riches and recognition.
A. A. GillRead
Being able to afford everything you desire is not, by any means, the worst thing that can happen to you. But, depressingly, and more profoundly, neither is it the best.
A. A. GillRead
America didn’t bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be.
A. A. GillRead
Trying to learn to be a good man is like learning to play tennis against a wall. You are only a good man - a competent, capable, interesting and lovable man - when you're doing it for, or with, other people.
A. A. GillRead
Similar quotes
A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.
Leon TrotskyRead
One of the roles of the press is to make sure that the president, in the voice of the people, is telling the truth.
John DickersonRead
We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.
Harold MacmillanRead
It is interesting ... how weapons reflect the soul of the maker.
Don DelilloRead
As a historian, he felt it his duty to respect everything that had ever been respected, except for the occasional statesman.
Henry AdamsRead
Experience by itself is not science.
Edmund HusserlRead