Philip Seymour Hoffman Quotes

These days, with 'American Idol' and all the other reality shows, young people become famous overnight, and that can be very difficult to handle, the way photographers follow you around and study your every move.

People aren't honest about the horrors of fame. The downsides are so overwhelming that, for me, there is no payoff.

I was never that famous, but I do think going to college and really getting away from the business and taking a true break is incredibly, incredibly important if you start acting at a young age.

You know, I did not like being famous. It was a stressful and ugly time, and I'm glad it's over.

My discrepancy with children in the industry is that they are made famous before they know who they are as human beings.

I am not this big celebrity, but it gets really crazy. You have to go through the nuts of blowing up, in a sense, and then figuring out how to live your life with that.

Being famous before you've formed your personality, before you have that self-esteem, is dangerous.

Being rich and famous isn't all happiness and at times the pressures have got to me.

I think that being thrown into instant fame must be, at times, difficult.

I feel for those 19-year-olds who get thrust into the limelight that young.

You come to America, and, if you do a big TV show, then you can be overexposed, or old, before you're new.

With the mega-fame came the mega-downfall - you know, with the press and everything - and at a young age, it was very stressful to me.

I just turned 40, and I look at so many performers and so many people who are actually always on time and always have an album out. They don't have actual lives, in my opinion. I feel like I'm so much more than being famous and meeting a musical quota. And I don't know, just the weight of the scrutiny and attention is too weird for me.

I'd die if I was Madonna. I'd die. God, what a horrible way to live. And Michael Jackson! To be so famous and to feel so isolated. I feel so bad for them. I don't know how it feels, and I hope it never happens to me.

There's such big pressure on people who are incredibly famous, on those who have people sitting outside their front door and taking photos every time they move.

If I had to change one thing about my life, it would probably be, I wouldn't be famous. Because when you're famous it's so hard.

I didn't read the book on how to be a well-adjusted celebrity.

Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag.

There's always going to be that pressure when you're in front of the camera. When you're famous it's just an extreme version of reality and there's a pressure to look a certain way.

To enjoy being famous, you need to have a screw loose.

Hollywood is a suction for your confidence or your faith or your togetherness. Just walking on the street you can feel it.

When you become famous super young, you learn how to behave by the rules because you're the one that has to take the stress. But that also creates a barrier that I really didn't want.

When people stare at you, and you read about yourself in papers - at 13, it just got very confusing. I thought that if this is what it's like to be famous, I don't like it one bit.

When you become famous at 19, it does a number in your head, so you find romance in the mundane - isn't it so great that a guy would pick me up at my house and take me to a restaurant?

I changed my mind about being a famous pop star when I realised that it meant I'd never be able to get on the Tube again.