Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

The Quotable Murr

02.21.2011 by David Murray // 5 Comments

I'm tired of Fran Lebowitz having all the good quotes.

"Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying."

"My favorite animal is steak."

"Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep."

I could have said that stuff.

"Everybody wants to be famous. Haven't they noticed? Not even famous people are famous. I read the New York Times obits to meet new people." —David Murray

"If we aren't magnanimous in our judgement of our young selves, how can we expect our young selves to be magnanimous with us?" —David Murray

"Our essential responsibility as personal and organizational communicators is not to spoon out information slowly to babies with weak digestion systems. Rather, it’s to try desperately to keep up, verbally, with the massive flow of unvarnished truth that our behavior is sending, and that our family, friends and colleagues are receiving every day." —David Murray

"Share your emotions only with those with whom you'd willingly share your money—and then, only in the same amounts." —David Murray

I'm so humble that those four are all I can think of! Can you believe that? Come on. Who else can remember some great quotes of mine?

Or, if you absolutely cannot think of any Quotable Me, how about Quotable You?

Categories // The Quotable Murr Tags // Fran Lebowitz, The Quotable Me, The Quotable You

When we all get famous, will we all forget where we came from?

12.07.2010 by David Murray // 9 Comments

On and around yesterday's topic of nobodies:

People say everyone wants to be famous these days. Actually, I would have been more likely to say that ten years ago. But now we know that there's actually a tiny percentage of the American population that doesn't want to be famous. They're the ones who don't have a Facebook account.

The rest of us? Yeah, we want to be famous.*

In my twenties, I remember talking straight up with my wife about how I hoped to be interviewed by David Letterman one day. Shameless vanity is typical of young writers, who actually have a path, however unlikely, to some version of fame. ("The best fame is a writer's fame," Fran Lebowitz says. "It's enough to get a table at a good restaurant, but not enough to get you interrupted when you eat.")

But until the advent of Facebook, Twitter and Super Nanny, most people not named Lee Harvey Oswald couldn't imagine how they would ever become famous.

They never had the whiff of fame that 46 views of your YouTube video gives you, and unless they got up a head of steam and ran for town councilman, they lived and died without ever knowing firsthand that being known about by strangers is as fulfilling as eating cotton candy.

But these days the cotton candy is flying off the shelves, because the people who wanted to be famous all along are finding ways to feel like they're famous.

The trouble is—and I hope they will learn this—there is no such thing as being famous. There are a thousand such things.

There is having 123 Twitter followers, some of whom you have never heard of.

There is being well-known in a small and insulated circle. By that measure, I am famous, and have been for 15 years. But then, you—and only you—already knew that.

There is being well-known in a slightly larger, well-insulated circle.This is the level of fame you need to get an obituary in The New York Times, where more people learn about you upon your death than ever knew about you during your life. (I read the Times obits to meet new people.)

There are Tanya Harding, Philip Michael Thomas and Rickey Schroder. And there are the Beatles.

Thinking you want fame is like wandering into a bar and saying, "Booze, please."

The next question is, "What kind?"

* The only person who I know who does not want to be famous, even secretly and for only five minutes a month, is my wife. Sho is truculently unimpressed by fame. One afternoon some years ago well-connected movie-producer friend called to ask me what I knew about a young actress he was thinking of using in a movie. I didn't reognize the name, but I called downstairs, "Cristie, Tony's on the phone. He wants to know, do you know who Lindsay Lohan is?"

Cristie yelled back, "Oh, for Christ's sake, is Tony bringing Lindsay Lohan over for dinner?"

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // "nobodies", David Letterman, fame, Fran Lebowitz, Lindsay Lohan, Philip Micheal Thomas, Rickey Schroder, Tanya Harding

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