Selected image quotes

1. Public service is my motto.

2. The only thing Madonna will ever do like a virgin is give birth in a stable.

3. No man can be a genius in slapshoes and a flat hat.

4. Keep up appearances whatever you do.

5. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

6. We're pretty! We are though, we're a good-looking band.

7. My hands tend to be full enough dealing with people who hate me for who I am. Concentrate too hard on the millions of people who hate you for what you are and you're likely to turn into one of those unkempt, sloppy dressers who sag beneath the weight of the two hundred political buttons they wear pinned to their coats and knapsacks.

8. The image is one thing and the human being is another...it's very hard to live up to an image.

9. This is not a showman's job. I will not step out of character.

10. This Great God, Like a mammy bending over her baby, Kneeled down in the dust Toiling over a lump of clay Till He shaped it in His own image.

11. I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world. Y'know, I'm a very strong person and I think that's why actually I find it really infuriating when I read, 'She had a nervous breakdown' or 'She's not very mentally stable, just a weak, frail little creature'.

12. The extravagant and ostentatious lifestyles that pass for charisma in a time when almost anybody talks about charisma but if you think about it there's precious little to be seen.

13. What all this posturing and fake glamor results in is a vast detachment and cynicism on the part of the artists. Since it's impossible to have respect for an audience that'll take just about anything you care to dish out, and the impassive demeanor is so central to the role, a general numbnose is all that can be expected.

14. I'm not anything like Brad Pitt or Antonio Banderas, but maybe it's the taboo element of my image, which is almost deathlike, that attracts them. I should be the last person that [people] should be attracted to.

15. People ask me if I am going on making cheesecake pictures now that I'm a star. My answer is that as long as there is a boy in Korea who wants a pinup of me, I'll go on posing for them.

16. You're always a little disappointing in person because you can't be the edited essence of yourself.

17. I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.

18. I project a definite innocence. A lot of that is just the way I grew up.

19. When I was younger, I was worried about how others viewed me and if I was good enough. I realize now that you can't mold an image or try to be something that you are not. As far as being an actor is concerned, your work really speaks for itself.

20. A great many people have come up to me and asked how I manage to get so much work done and still keep looking so dissipated.

21. In our small chess community in Marylebone it would be mock modesty on my part to deny that I have built up for myself a considerable name without ever actually having won a single game. Even the best players are sometimes beaten, and that is precisely what happens to me.

22. Public postures have the configuration of private derangement.

23. Fat girl, terrestrial, my summer, my night, How is it I find you in difference, see you there In a moving contour, a change not quite completed? You are familiar yet an aberration.

24. Everyone now, they look back and they're like, 'What happened to your sweet image that you used to be?' And I'm like, then when you came out you thought I was too provocative. It's like you can never win. No matter what you do, at the end of the day you can't please everybody, you know. I'm not here to please...

25. Appearance rules the world.

26. I don't like old people on a rock and roll stage. . . me included.

27. So nice to be a fashion icon in my day.

28. I want to be a diva, like 'people-totally-respect-my-music' diva, not diva like 'carry-my-diet-Coke-around'.

29. My life [is] a series of Hollywood orgies and Kabbalah center brunches with the cast of Friends. At least that's what my handlers tell me. I'm actually too valuable to live my own life and spend most of my days in a vegetable crisper to remain fake news anchor fresh.

30. 'I have to work hard to not look like a nerd all the time. My friends are the only people I know that don't care about my image. I need to have people who treat me just as Josh, not as Josh the singer. '

31. 'I would never know how to sell myself as a sex symbol. That's not how I'm programmed.'

32. The truth is, one can work for another ten years and be playing parts, pushing yourself as hard as you can, and you are still accused of that. You're still tainted with that brush. I'm not called Jude Law, I have three names; I'm called 'Hunk Jude Law' or 'Heartthrob Jude Law'. In England anyway, that's my full name. That's the cheap language that's thrown around, that sums you up in one little bracket. It doesn't look at your life. But if one looks beyond, there is actually a little bit more.'

33. The trend toward narcissistic flair has been responsible in large part for smiting rock with the superstar virus, which revolves around the substituting of attitudes and flamboyant trappings, into which the audience can project their fantasies, for the simple desire to make music, get loose, knock the folks out or get 'em up dancin.' It's not enough just to do those things anymore; what you must do instead if you want success on any large scale is figure a way of getting yourself associated in the audience's mind with their pieties and their sense of 'community,' i.e., ram it home that you're one of THEM; or, alternately, deck and bake yourself into an image configuration so blatant or outrageous that you become a culture myth.

34. I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they've made of me - and that I've made of myself - as a sex symbol. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman's and I can't live up to it.

35. Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

36. My face is so pretty, you don't see a scar, which proves I'm the king of the ring by far.

37. 'Me carrying a briefcase is like a hotdog wearing earrings.'

38. 'My only obligation is to keep myself and other people guessing.' [8]

39. I won't be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me.

40. There is nothing so stupid or dangerous or painful that people wont eagerly do it, if by doing it they will make others believe that they are better or stronger or more honorable. I've seen people poison themselves, destroy their children, abandon their mates, cut themselves off from the world, all so that others would think that they were a better sort of person.

41. He (the Emperor) is taller by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders.

42. 'Wir durfen eine gute Sache nicht am falschen Schein ruinieren.' ('We must not ruin a good thing with a bad appearance')

43. 'He's the most beautiful man who ever walked the earth ...' - Naomi Watts (People magazine, November 24, 2004)

44. 'Jude's uniqueness is that he has the talent of a character actor and the looks of a leading man.' - John Avnet (People magazine, November 24, 2004)

45. 'Jude Law is one of the most handsome men on the planet. He is a character actor struggling to get out of a beautiful body.' - Anthony Minghella [6]

46. Have you ever seen a picture Of Jesus laughing? Mmm, do you think He had a beautiful smile? A smile that healed.

47. There was a story that some EMI execs had come down to see you and you'd said something like: 'Here's what I've been working on,' and then produced some cakes from your oven. True? 'No! I don't know where that came from. I thought that was quite funny actually. It presents me as this homely creature, which is all right, isn't it?'

48. Somewhere in the trash he reads Martland has read that heavy men walk with surprising lightness and grace; as a result he trips about like a portly elf hoping to be picked up by a leprechaun.

49. It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious middle temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the east, striding half-naked up the steps of the viceregal palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the king-emperor.

50. The Prime Minister, shortly after she came into office, received the sobriquet as the 'Iron Lady'. It arose in the context of remarks which she made about defence against the Soviet Union and its allies; but there was no reason to suppose that the right hon. Lady did not welcome and, indeed, take pride in that description. In the next week or two in this House, the nation and the right hon. Lady herself will learn of what metal she is made.

51. [She has a] patronising elocution voice [and] neat well-groomed clothes and hair, packaged together in a way that's not exactly vulgar, just low. [It fills me with] a kind of rage.

52. I remember her on the screen, huge as a colossus doll, mincing and whispering and simply hoping her way into total vulnerability.

53. Rene Levesque looks like a distressed seminarian.

54. It's Wheird, there's an H in there. Gotta hit that H otherwise they think I'm some sort of a kook!

55. Le ridicule qu'on a augmente toujours en proportion qu'on s'en defend.

56. I think they just thought she would be a good kind of lightning rod. We did one or two rehearsals, and I know for a fact that people liked her legs.

57. When I did that Metallic stuff for my Umbrella video, I didn't do it to show my body. I didn't do it for people to like me. I did it because it was a cool visual, unexpected and I looked hot. I just find myself leaning towards stuff that only Madonna can pull off.

58. The crimes committed here foul the name and holiness of Jesus Christ in the eyes of the Iranian people.

59. Embrace your inner wacko, Senator Kerry.

60. A harmless, lovable little fuzz ball.

61. If you close your eyes, you could just as well imagine me to be vintage Ali MacGraw, circa 1968.

62. Victor: White people won't respect you if you don't look mean. You have to look like a warrior, like you just got back from killing a buffalo. Thomas: But our tribe never hunted buffalo. We were fishermen. Victor: What, you want to look like you just caught a fish? This isn't Dances with Salmon, you know!

63. Too fat, too thin, what the fuck are you supposed to be? God bless the media!

64. Seem'd washing his hands with invisible soap In imperceptible water.

65. Create myself down south. Impress all the women. Pretend I'm Samuel Clemens. Wear seersucker and white linens.

66. And on the wolfmother wallpaper, little beads of dew.

67. Dont get it twisted this is not my real life, this is not how my real life is suppose to be.

68. A lot of people wanna be W.C. Fields now, but that's not even who I am.

69. I'm not really an exhibitionist. I'm drawn to the outrageous stuff because it's fun, not because it's some deep compulsion. I'm not tortured, anger-stoked, deeply neurotic comic -- just a pretty low-key normal guy. A 'hey, the glass is half-full' kind of a guy. But please keep it quiet, or I may never work again.

70. 'Well, a not of times we are looking for a signt that tells us we're godly. We want to preach, or be a missionary or whatever, all to help ouselves believe that God is using us. We look everywhere but to God to make us feel godly. We try to convince others we are godly so that we can convince ourselves we are godly. The botton line is that godliness is about relationship, not about image'

71. I realized in and instant that I desired false gods because Jesus wouldn't jump through my hoops, and I realized that, like Tony, my faith was about image and ego, not about practicing spirituality.

72. I had the image of a spiritual person, but I was bowing down to the idols of religiosity and philosophy.

73. 'We never used sex to enhance our image.' (During the WWF 1999 commercial)

74. History!... Everybody kept saying to me to put a cold towel around my head and wipe the blood off... later, I saw myself in the mirror; my whole face spattered with blood and hair... I wiped it off with Kleenex... History! ... I thought, no one really wants me there. Then one second later I thought, why did I wash the blood off? I should have left it there, let them see what they've done... If I'd just had the blood and caked hair when they took the picture ... Then later I said to Bobby- what's the line between history and drama? I should have kept the blood on.

75. my own momma say im thugged out/my shit be bumpin out tha record store/as if it was a drug house/my lyrics bang like a Crip or Blood

76. This is Winston Churchill speaking. If you have a microphone in my room it is a waste of time. I do not talk in my sleep

77. Image:Crane5004 1919 Essays Vol 5 Page4.jpg

78. I'm offering people an opportunity to ride in my Z3 - weekends only - I'll give you a ride around Beverly Hills, I'll pull up in front of some of the stores on Rodeo and give people the impression you can afford to shop there, at $200 an hour.

79. John Kerry with a tan.

80. This world is bullshit. And just because I appear in music video wherein I am in my underwear, and make young women feel not good enough so that they become anorxeic; and okay, maybe because of that I became popular more quickly than other singers who are, I don't know, maybe more talented or better songwriters. That doesn't matter because, and ... um ... my boyfriend is a magician, and he can pull a quarter out of your ear and say things like 'We have not met before have we?' Go with yourself.

81. The House has noticed the Prime Minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks, from Stalin to Mr Bean.

82. For us she is not the iron lady. She is the kind, dear Mrs. Thatcher.

83. John Major: What I don't understand, Michael, is why such a complete wimp like me keeps winning everything. Michael Brunson: You've said it, you said precisely that. Major: I suppose Gus will tell me off for saying that, won't you Gus? Brunson: No, no, no ... it's a fair point. The trouble is that people are not perceiving you as winning. Major: Oh, I know ... why not? Because ... Brunson: Because rotten sods like me, I suppose, don't get the message clear [laughs]. Major: No, no, no. I wasn't going to say that - well partly that, yes, partly because of S-H-one-Ts like you, yes, that's perfectly right. But also because those people who are opposing our European policy have said the way to oppose the Government on the European policy is to attack me personally. The Labour Party started before the last election. It has been picked up and it is just one of these fashionable things that slips into the Parliamentary system and it is an easy way to proceed. Brunson: But I mean you ... has been overshadowed ... my point is there, not just the fact that you have been overshadowed by Maastricht and people don't ... Major: The real problem is this ... Brunson: But you've also had all the other problems on top - the Mellors, the Mates ... and it's like a blanket - you use the phrase 'masking tape' but I mean that's it, isn't it? Major: Even, even, even, as an ex-whip I can't stop people sleeping with other people if they ought not, and various things like that. But the real problem is ... Brunson: I've heard other people in the Cabinet say 'Why the hell didn't he get rid of Mates on Day One?' Mates was a fly, you could have swatted him away. Major: Yeah, well, they did not say that at the time, I have to tell you. And I can tell you what they would have said if I had. They'd have said 'This man was being set up. He was trying to do his job for his constituent. He had done nothing improper, as the Cabinet Secretary told me. It was an act of gross injustice to have got rid of him'. Nobody knew what I knew at the time. But the real problem is that one has a tiny majority. Don't overlook that. I could have all these clever and decisive things that people wanted me to do and I would have split the Conservative Party into smithereens. And you would have said, Aren't you a ham-fisted leader? You've broken up the Conservative Party. Brunson: No, well would you? If people come along and ... Major: Most people in the Cabinet, if you ask them sensibly, would tell you that, yes. Don't underestimate the bitterness of European policy until it is settled - It is settled now. Brunson: Three of them - perhaps we had better not mention open names in this room - perhaps the three of them would have - if you'd done certain things, they would have come along and said, 'Prime Minister, we resign'. So you say 'Fine, you resign'. Major: We all know which three that is. Now think that through. Think it through from my perspective. You are Prime Minister. You have got a majority of 18. You have got a party still harking back to a golden age that never was but is now invented. And you have three rightwing members of the Cabinet actually resigned. What happens in the parliamentary party? Brunson: They create a lot of fuss but you have probably got three damn good ministers in the Cabinet to replace them. Major: Oh, I can bring in other people into the Cabinet, that is right, but where do you think most of this poison has come from? It is coming from the dispossessed and the never-possessed. You and I can both think of ex-ministers who are going around causing all sorts of trouble. Would you like three more of the bastards out there? What's the Lyndon Johnson, er, maxim? Brunson: If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow. Major: No, that's not what I had in mind, though it's pretty good.

84. It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.

85. The man with the navy-blue voice. ~ Barbara Harris (London Observer 6 Aug 76)

86. The studios wanted to give me the Monroe-type sex buildup. I wanted to develop my acting, not my body.

87. 'Clothes and manners do not make the man, but where he is made they greatly improve his appearance.'

88. My soul is like this cloudy, flaming opal ring.

89. In death he remains as he was in life. All show with no substance.

90. Bill Gates is a monocle and a Persian cat away from being the villain in a James Bond movie.

91. I hated it. Everybody'd say, 'Hey, mama, what's happening?' Then came the Mamas and Papas and I was stuck with it. And now people call me Mama Cass because of the baby. So I don't know whether I'm gonna be able to really get away from it.

92. Pour s'etablir dans le monde, on fait tout ce que l'on peut pour y paraitre etabli.

93. 'If I had been born ugly, you would never have heard of Pele.'

94. You are always on parade.

95. Jack: I want to look tanned, not lumpy.

96. I can't die. It would wreck my image.

97. From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing.

98. There was an attraction at first that Mr Baldwin should not be clever. But when he forever sentimentalises about his own stupidity, the charm is broken.

99. I don't want to make a career of taking my shirt off. I'd like to shave off all my hair, even my eyebrows, try it that way. (1988)

100. Everybody compares everyone to James Dean these days. If you're lucky, they mention Brando or De Niro or Sean Penn. It's like they have to compare you to somebody. They invite you to put on an instant image. (1988)