
sane
Fame, written with Carlos Alomar and John Lennon
Song lyrics, Young Americans (1975)
Licymnius, Frag. 477
sane
Fame, written with Carlos Alomar and John Lennon
Song lyrics, Young Americans (1975)
[199709242015.NAA10312@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997
Interviewed in Q magazine (April 1990)
Source: Poems (1898), Rhymes And Rhythms, III
"Robertson Davies" [by Paul Soles]
Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)
Context: Well, I haven't got wealth or fame, but I really think I might say, and I know how dangerous it is to say this — I think I have happiness. And happiness, you know, so many people when they talk about happiness, seem to think that it is a constant state of near lunacy, that you're always hopping about like a fairy in a cartoon strip, and being noisily and obstreperously happy. I don't think that is it at all. Happiness is a certain degree of calm, a certain degree of having your feet rooted firmly in the ground, of being aware that however miserable things are at the moment that they're probably not going to be so bad after awhile, or possibly they may be going very well now, but you must keep your head because they're not going to be so good later. Happiness is a very deep and dispersed state. It's not a kind of excitement.
Source: More Money than Brains (2010), Chapter Seven, If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich?, p. 206 (See also: Henry David Thoreau, Karl Marx, James Joyce, Herman Mellville...)
“What is fame?
Fame is but a slow decay—
Even this shall pass away.”
All Things shall pass away, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Fame is not the glory; virtue is the goal, and Fame only a messenger to bring more to the fold.”
Degrees: Thought Capsules and Micro Tales (1989)