Quotes About Recognition

People come up and say, 'Hey, I know you!' They're middle-aged women and big burly guys. They say, 'Don't tell anyone, but I watch Felicity, and I think it's great.'

When you tell them you're a writer, they say, 'What have you written?' And then you've got to tell them what you've done. I don't ask a plumber what he does. Then I have to explain what I've done, and I haven't really, you know. I've just told some stories.

You can talk to someone relatively famous, and they say, 'What do you do? What do you do for a job?' and I say, 'I make documentaries for the BBC,' and you see their eyes just glaze over.

I get recognised quite a bit, but people are so nice. They say things like, 'Thank you for all the fun,' which is wonderful to hear.

You don't actually have control of the position people want you to be in. If they say, 'You king of the blacks,' you're king of the blacks - whether you like it or not.

I don't get mobbed in the street or bothered. Well, people do stop and say nice things. 'I like 'Endeavour,' or, 'I loved The Thick of It.'

Ten comics can say the same joke, and I'm the one who gets called a thief.

I made up my mind I was going to walk that thin line between fame and oblivion.

The only thing I command is respect.

The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you.

To me, the whole idea of fame and I think it can be a real test of somebody, of who they are. You know, 'cause some strange things happen. I've seen some peculiar things as far as a person just living their life.

I am the most senior actor in 'Devdas,' yet I was not invited to Cannes. I guess these things happen in the industry.

I was not a Mouseketeer, but a lot of people think I was.

I would walk down the street and people would scream from their cars at me and, generally, I'd turn around and it's a 13-year-old girl. And it's funny because that is the audience that I think big studios are always trying to target.

I thought I knew who Alan Turing was. I've always loved history, and I was actually shocked by how little I actually knew. I was amazed this wasn't common knowledge. Why wasn't he on the front covers of my history books? He's one of the great thinkers of the last century, and he was sort of pushed into the shadows.

I'd much rather people knew me as a good tennis player than as an aboriginal who happens to play good tennis. Of course I'm proud of my race, but I don't want to be thinking about it all the time.

All I want kids to know is that I see them for who they are and not who everyone thinks they are.

If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give 'em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

If anyone thinks that Jews can steal into the land of their fathers, he is deceiving either himself or others. Nowhere is the coming of Jews so promptly noted as in the historic home of the Jews, for the very reason that it is the historic home.

They'll forget all the rubbish when I've gone, and they'll remember the football. If only one person thinks I'm the best player in the world, that's good enough for me.

Even before I went to the UN, I often would want to say something in a meeting - only woman at the table - and I'd think, 'OK well, I don't think I'll say that. It may sound stupid.' And then some man says it, and everybody thinks it's completely brilliant, and you are so mad at yourself for not saying something.

When I was in my 20s, I thought that being known for 'Swimming Pool' was kind of a burden. Like, 'OK, everyone thinks I am this tanned bimbo,' and I was having problems coping with that image.

I do find it slightly offensive that everyone thinks that every New Zealander starred in either 'Lord of the Rings' or 'The Hobbit.'

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.