My great-grandmother was born in London, the daughter of a Brixton coachman, and became the most famous singer in Australia. Her name was Marie Carandini, Madame Carandini.

On the Italian side, we can trace the family back 2,000 years. I have a cousin in Rome, a famous archaeologist, Count Andrea Carandini, who was in Lombardy and came across some pottery with the original name of the family, Carandinus, painted on it.

Indian paper is famous, Egyptian papyrus, Chinese paper... every country has used this natural material. But the problem is it's going to run out because it's very difficult work.

It's my observation that gardeners and gardening for a very long time have had to take a back seat. Architects are very famous; they've got huge projects. What goes on in and around them has been relegated to a very minor role.

For me a Writing Day was an occasion for self-reproach and panic, a time to lament the passing of the years, stare out of windows and remember that even those famous late starters Joseph Conrad and George Eliot had started by the age I was now.

No matter what you achieve, what you want to aspire to be, or how famous and powerful you become, the most important thing is whether you are excited about each and every moment of your life because of your work and people around you.

I can't advise any of the young ones, because I don't know what their background was, but I would suggest that anyone who wants to be famous more than anything - there's a real problem.

The rich and famous expect to get a lot for their story, whether they are writing it themselves or not. It's not that they need the money, of course; it's a question of ego, like catching the biggest fish.

Frost was no match for Nixon - far from being an intrepid and challenging interviewer, he was a pushover for the great and the famous, always deeply impressed with the fact that here he was, David Frost, putting questions to - Richard Nixon!

Peter Fleming was a famous English traveler, explorer and adventurer, whose non-fiction books were hugely successful. My father owned signed copies of all of them - he and Peter Fleming had become acquainted over some detail of set design at the Korda film studio in Shepperton - and I had read each of them with breathless adolescent excitement.

Many medal winners dream of competing in a sport other than the one they're famous for.

Few would argue that Richard Dawkins is the world's most famous atheist, especially now that his friend and rival for the title, Christopher Hitchens, has now gone to meet his Maker.

I like photographing the people I love, the people I admire, the famous, and especially the infamous. My last infamous subject was the extreme right wing French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.

I think Chris Martin is younger than I am, but when I met him, I felt like I was talking to my father. It's so strange, that feeling when someone is that famous - you assume that they are either older or better.

Most famous stage actors tactfully fade away.

Despite the rigid classicism of the famous Paris Opera school and company, the French have done more than their share to unmoor la Danse from its traditions and standards.

On an emotional level, success in America would be terrible for me; it would be insane. I really, seriously, never want to be famous here.

I have only one ambition, which is to be famous.

I've only ever wanted to be a singer; I never wanted to be famous.

I really hate the duties of being a celebrity, like getting dressed up for the red carpet.

I think it would be really brutal to put on a persona and get famous for that persona. Like, 'I'm number one, I'm the best!' because that sounds like a lot of pressure.

I never wanted to be famous.

I get recognized, but I'm not really a famous famous.

Ever since Obama's election team and media thugs made me famous for asking a simple question in 2008, I've had more than my share of death threats by people who are by definition at least a little crazy.

Becoming famous is a strange thing in your own right.

I can never really enjoy being famous.

I work in politics and media, two industries that have been particularly affected by the issue of misconduct. We have seen famous and powerful men finally pay a price for behavior they got away with for decades. Many have lost their positions and status - rightly so.

Like Siemens, the UAE is big on innovation. It has become famous as a think tank for thought leadership in areas of interest to the world - and to Siemens.

Being a famous actress may give you a sense of being important, but believe me, it's just an illusion.

It's never been my purpose to become an American icon, or more famous or richer.

I think that most people who are just artists, who are getting famous, would trade a lot of their fame back for some normalcy, pretty much immediately.

You can't be a good actor if you get too affected by fame. Because then you're not real, and you're not really wanting more. You look at a lot of actors who, before they were famous, did a lot of amazing work, and once they got too big, it just got off.

I don't want to be famous. I want to be secure. I don't want the world. I just want a piece of it. I want people to remember Eric Davis.

I realized that I wanted a Rhodes Scholarship, not because I wanted to go to graduate school but because I wanted to win a famous award. Quitting forced me to realize I was on the wrong track and that I had lost touch with who I was and what I cared about.

Although I was born to famous parents, I know and feel the problems of ordinary citizens.

I think people should be protected from being made to feel that they want to know what somebody famous had for breakfast.

Ever since grammar school, I knew I wanted to be famous - I always wanted to be a singer.

I wrote because I needed to and wanted to. It never occurred to me that I'd become famous.

The records of adopted children are sealed in California. That seal is considered inviolable... The judge ruled that, because I was famous, he didn't have the same rights as other kids.

I'm astonished by my success. I wrote because I needed to and wanted to. It never occurred to me that I'd become famous.

I didn't have any aspirations of becoming famous or successful; in fact I was scared to death of all that. I remember somebody once said that if a rock musician goes on tour, he goes insane. I was very impressionable and I carried this useless weight of fear around with me about going on tour, all because of this thing somebody said.

I met a lot of famous people when I was about 24. And none of them seemed very appealing. And so I didn't know why I would struggle to be that kind of person.

I think that as soon as you think of yourself as a famous person or anything like that, you're objectifying yourself in some weird way.

When you've finished reading every last thing by a famous writer, literary convention holds that you move on to his or her letters, the DVD extras peddled by publishers.

My famous line is 'Product is king.'

One thing lots of Christians do have in common is that they can't help coming across as smug. This winds lots of people up, particularly because famous Christians pronounce on the life of the poor from their very lovely affluent homes filled with their very lovely families and attractive pets.

Normal is such a hard word to use, because everyone's idea of normal is different. Real is what the word is. I think you either live a real life or you live a weird celebrity pseudolife. I think I lead a really real life.

Our business isn't to be famous: that's not what we do; that's not what we strive for.

I have smelled some very famous and undoubtedly sexy boys. And sometimes, as cute as they are, I'd rather have them as a friend - just because of the way they smell!

A lot of stand-up comedy guys, when they get a little famous, just give up their stand-up career, and it cancels out the thing that set them apart.