Top 50 Public Figure Quotes

I understand that when you become a public figure, people pay more attention to you, but my personal life is my space.

I went from living my life anonymously for 58 years to being a public figure known globally in a matter of minutes.

My father was a public figure all my life, and so the presidency was an extension of that. I guess you get used to it, though you can stand back occasionally and think, ‘Boy, this is really weird!’

Dr. King, if he were alive today, probably would simply be a minister, a pastor. His initial intent was, indeed, just to be a preacher. He didn’t have any egotistical desire or need to be a public figure or celebrity. He got drafted – or, really, dragged into it – initially in Montgomery.

My dream job growing up was always to be an artist. It wasn’t even that I would be a rapper or singer; I just knew I would be a public figure.

I’m 19, and, being a public figure, I’m supposed to present myself in a certain way, but it’s hard and you’re never going to be able to tell people who you are through the media.

I don’t much like being a public figure, because so often how people appear is not how they really are, and I think one of the issues about our society is that we make judgments about people on the basis of very flimsy evidence.

For choice, I prefer not to be a public figure. I don’t have Tom Cruise’s good looks. I don’t have a need to be on the front page of fill-in-the-blank.

I’m looking forward to being able to retire from being a public figure and being able to afford to be myself!

You know that being a public figure is instantly grounds for prosecution.

Anyone who faults Romney or Obama or any public figure for demanding quote approval is missing the point. The journalists were no abused weaklings here. They made a bargain for access to these newsworthy figures that they thought was in their favor – they’re only complaining because they got caught.

Mayor Koch, of New York, was the first public figure to give me support.

Ernest Hemingway did a great deal toward making the writer an acceptable public figure; obviously, he was no sissy.

I cannot turn my life back around. I’m already a public figure, I’m famous… It’s like, I might as well keep it going, might as well make the money.

I wasn’t interested at all in doing a documentary. I was not a public figure.

When you are a public figure you will get love and hate both.

As a public figure, I’m always interested in being part of brands that I actually enjoy. So, I would never do something with somebody I don’t believe in, a product I don’t believe in. There are so many products out there that I love that I’d chomp at the bit to be a part of their campaign.

Being a public figure a lot of people will really love what you do, but you know there is also a ton of people who will hate on it.

Although I am a public figure, I’m still a little shy. I don’t think my own personality is important. I prefer to keep some small dosage of privacy.

As a public figure, you deserve to be treated fairly.

Being a public figure, you cannot make everyone happy. Some people will criticise your actions, and I cannot stop expressing my opinion based on that.

I never wanted to be a public figure. I feel that I always have to dampen down people’s expectations. They expect me to be an oracle, wave a magic wand, sprinkle some slow, sparkly dust on them, to make everything all right.

I know that being an actor, I’m a public figure and anything that I do will become news.

Time made me change. I gradually woke up to the realization that this is who I am, an author, a public figure, and I couldn’t just hide in my study, tapping away at the keyboard and pretend that I didn’t have a role to play beyond stringing words together.

I think Lena Dunham, the public figure, is – I hate the word ‘brand,’ but I’m going to use it – it’s such a brand that is so tethered to her public persona and to ‘Girls’, but also this progressive politics that she’s been more vocal about.

I’d have to say that Nixon feels like the public figure who most dominated my life – from the time I went to fourth grade wearing a Nixon-Lodge button in the fall of 1960, through my college years, which overlapped with Kent State, Cambodia, the China trip and all the rest.

If I were not a public figure, I wouldn’t fly with Thai.

Practicing free speech on an open platform is a perilous path for any public figure, and there are no get-out-of-jail free passes in the court of public opinion.

For people who may think they know, or have snippets of who I am, you can attack that person. That’s part of being a public figure.

Overnight, I became a public figure.

I think we need one recognized, respected public figure to make a tough, blunt statement on just what Reagan’s record is and what he might do to the country, let alone the Republican Party before Christmas.

The strange thing is, no matter what, when you become some kind of public figure, you have your go-to answers for all scenarios and instances.

Back in the 1980s, the ‘News of the World’ had specialised in digging into the privacy of criminals. In the 1990s, enriched by the excavation of Princess Diana’s volatile life, they had widened their work to mine the activities of any celebrity, any public figure.

Let me marry in a normal way. I know I’m a public figure, but the person I’m getting married to might need privacy.

The first 20 stories written about a public figure set the tone for the next 2,000 and it is almost impossible to reverse it.

I remember, once I was going through Nice airport with Roger Moore, and these kids came up and asked for our autographs. Afterwards, Roger said, ‘It must be very strange for you. I’m an actor, and signing autographs is part of what I do. But you’re a public figure who people don’t really know.’ He was right.

I went from being a senator, a young senator, to being considered for vice president, running for president, being a vice presidential candidate, and becoming a national public figure. All of which fed a self-focus, an egotism, a narcissism that leads you to believe that you can do whatever you want.

Rumors will always be there. So, good or bad you have to take them in your stride because you are a public figure.

It’s hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.

I’m really interested in how we view the public figure, what makes a public figure, what makes a celebrity, and how images make politicians, so I take an interest in politics, but it’s really an interest in the image.

I feel strongly about HIV/AIDS and children because I’m a famous singer, a public figure, and I’m a female and a mother. I have the responsibility and the passion to help out and do whatever I can.

I am a public figure, but I am not public property.

Apparently, the prerequisite to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption ‘I am gay’. I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected!

Theodore Roosevelt had drawn public attention to his attractive family in order to create a bond with ordinary Americans. Eleanor Roosevelt had successfully broached the idea that a First Lady could be nearly as much a public figure as her husband.

I think that as a public figure, I put myself out there so people can ask me anything they want to ask me.

I do not think that Caitlyn Jenner’s transition was easy. Coming out and transitioning as a public figure – even for someone like her – is an extraordinarily difficult task to undertake. I might not agree with her on a couple of points, but I will refuse to say that her transition was easy.

If you’re a public figure, people have the right to speculate and gossip.

I am not a famous person at home – I’m just a guy here. I’m a father, I’m a companion, I’m a human being. I am not a public figure in my house; I am not a celebrity. I am not a famous person to myself – I am just a guy.

The public figure of the writer, the writer-character, the ‘personality-cult’ of the author, are all becoming for me more and more intolerable in others, and consequently in myself.

You have to protect your personal life, your family and their intimacy as much as possible, whenever possible. Especially when you’re a public figure with appearances to attend. Of course, that’s harder to do than to say.