Reviews for someone like me come in three packages. One is justifiable praise, the second is justifiable criticism, and the third is, "This is only published because he's a celebrity."
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the mixed nature of reviews that celebrities receive, highlighting both praise and skepticism.
Steve Martin's quote addresses the complex relationship between celebrity status and critical evaluation. He suggests that reviews often fall into three categories: genuine admiration, legitimate critique, and undue attention simply due to the popularity of the individual. This reveals the challenge of receiving genuine feedback in an industry where fame can overshadow merit.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of resilience in the face of criticism, a speaker might quote Steve Martin.
When I first started doing my comedy act, I just desperately needed material. So I took literally everything I knew how to do on stage with me, which was juggling, magic and banjo and my little comedy routines. I always felt the audience sorta tolerated the serious musical parts while I was doing my comedy.
You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do.
I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian.
...it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.
If he thinks he would harm Mirabelle, he would back away. But he does not yet understand when and how people are hurt. He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.
I was raised with "Laurel and Hardy" and "I Love Lucy" and Jerry Lewis, and I just loved it. And I had a friend in high school and we would just laugh all day and put on skits. You know, it's the Andy Kaufman thing or the Marty Short thing where you're performing in your bedroom for yourself.
Guess what, I might be the first hippie pinup girl.
If you want to be a psychological novelist and write about human beings, the best thing you can do is keep a pair of cats.
I have never felt inhibited in trying to write as well as the greatest English poets.
What I end up shooting is the situation. I shoot the composition and my subject is going to help the composition or not.
The sound of the rain needs no translation. In music one doesn't make the end of the composition the point of the composition... Same way in dancing, you don't aim at one particular spot in the room... The whole point of dancing is the dance.
then, as though it had been waiting on a near by roof for their arrival, the moon came slanting suddenly through the vines and turned the girl's face the color of white roses.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.