Samuel Johnson Quotes

After the war, and until the day of his death, his position on almost every public question was either mischievous or ridiculous, and usually both.

What's now shocking is I can't say anything publicly without it having a life. Not because I have extraordinary views but because people are keen on conflict, so they'll make that the story.

I'm not one who goes for the 'all press is good press' dictum.

But I think, if you're in the spotlight, people are going to say bad things, and that's just the way it is.

What Mr. [Robert F.] Kennedy says lacks only the merit of being true ... Bobby Kennedy can jump off the capital dome or whatever else he has to do to get the attention of the American people.

Negative press is always going to come out.

When you're a sports figure and people dislike you, they're going to look for the negatives.

There are some critics that will just write provocative stuff to get attention, but I would say most of the time that's not the case.

You can't write a book about Hillary Clinton and not anticipate some blowback, so I always knew it was going to be something.

I've always had the media going against me every year.

I've come to realize that you're going to get criticized no matter what. Somebody will always hate what you write, especially if you write humor for a fairly broad audience. Somebody will always find it not funny and declare you're not funny anymore. And sometimes people are just crazy.

Getting on the cover of TIME guarantees the existence of opposition in the future.

It was okay for people to write negative things about me just as long as they spelled my name right.

I understand that people have a critical mind towards my position. And receive a lot of confusion too.

You know, if you're going to be honest with yourself, you have to admit that you go into show business wanting people to talk about you and wanting everyone to know who you are. But that also means there are going to be a whole bunch of people who don't like you. No matter who you are. I'm sure there's somebody out there who doesn't like Betty White because she's short and has white hair.

I don't feel any pressure at all because I don't care. That's an occupational hazard... but if you're doing anything of any worth, and not doing something that's safe and anodyne and trying to be populist and a national treasure, then you've got to assume that as many people hate what you do - and you - as like what you do and like you.

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write.

The First Lady is going to be criticized no matter what she does.

People who read me seem to be divided into four groups: twenty-five percent like me for the right reasons; twenty-five percent like me for the wrong reasons; twenty-five percent hate me for the wrong reasons; twenty-five percent hate me for the right reasons. It's that last twenty-five percent that worries me.

People can take your name and write a book about you and they make money off of it. How is the public supposed to know you're not authorizing that book? As soon as you make a big stink about it it only makes the book sell more.

I never thought to look at the New York Times one, even though I knew people were pissed off. I've seen YouTube videos from people who are pissed off at me about that and that takes a lot of effort to go find.

I have grown into a Bestsellasaurus Rex - a big, stumbling book-beast that is loved when it shits money and hated when it tramples houses... I started out as a storyteller; along the way I became an economic force.

Hillary Clinton rubs people the wrong way, for valid reasons.

If people are going to write bad things about me because it makes news, I can brush it aside because I've had this for 10 years. I'm big enough and strong enough to cope with it. It's what comes with being Alan Shearer.

You're only as good as your last book.