I've always been one to shy away from the publicity, the limelight, whatever you want to call it. I prefer to be in the background.
Publicity is the life of this culture - in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive - and at the same time publicity is its dream.
I do need publicity but not for what I do for good. I need publicity for my book. I need publicity for my fights. I need publicity for my movie but not for helping people. Then it is no longer sincere.
I know actors who court personal publicity because they believe no publicity is bad publicity.
Publicity, publicity, publicity is the greatest moral factor and force in our public life.
I don't like being in the limelight.
I like being out of the limelight.
I didn't like being out in the limelight. I love performing, but that's it.
I don't like being in the limelight. It is not something extraordinary. It is just my habit.
I like being the center of attention. I want to be in the limelight, basically.
I love being an older comic now. It's like being an old soccer or an old baseball player. You're in the Hall of Fame and it's nice, but you're no longer that person in the limelight on the spot doing that thing.
I'm forever in the 'limelight' being Da Brat, being an entertainer, being a star.
The emerging notion of the Eighties was that publicity was a currency. The old view was that if you had a currency - your talent or your product - publicity might draw attention to it. The new view was that publicity in itself, highlighting you, bestowed value.
Mind you, the limelight exists anywhere in the world. When you're not in the U.K., it can be as active somewhere else in the world, and for me, that's more or less been the case, so I never dropped out of the limelight in that sense.
There is a time and place for being in the limelight. As far as being away from the spotlight, well, a certain air of exclusivity is always good.