This is something I believe. I don’t go along with the ones who say there is nothing we can do – there’s no point in trying. I don’t believe that. It is always worth trying right up until you roll over dead. What else is there? You try your hardest to put things right. That’s why I write and blog! If I was younger I’d be out with Greenpeace!
No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.
A woman would never make a nuclear bomb. They would never make a weapon that kills – no, no. They’d make a weapon that makes you feel bad for a while.
You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.
I miss him too! What a sad end to someone so full of life.
His death was a HUGE, HUGE, shock to me… Even bigger than John Lennon’s (though I was a rabid Beatles fan). I don’t think I ever got over it. In fact I think most of the laughter may have gone out of me that day. He was one of my heroes. That should say something to us about putting people on pedestals. It’s not fair to them. It dehumanizes them somehow.
I think it is always more of a shock when people take their own lives. And he was so much larger than life – full of it. A real shock.
I think, too, how often we hear the expression that laughter is the best medicine. But sometimes laughter is just a facade…
The psychological stress of living up to expectation and being lauded puts an enormous strain on the psyche. Probably more so for a comic – having to appear funny all the time. Humour is so difficult. When it is spontaneous it flows. The weight of expectation robs you off the spontaneity. The pressure must be enormous.
I’m sure you’re spot on about that.
Some celebrities seem to me to get so arrogant and superior. We say they are getting too big for their boots but psychologically I think they have to believe that they are that good in order to go out on that stage in front of a trillion adoring fans and deliver. They have to believe their own hype otherwise they couldn’t do it. If they felt unworthy they could not deliver. It’s a strange psychology. I wouldn’t want it. I’m sure it messes you up – hence all the drugs and alcohol – coping mechanisms.
I think anybody is going to need some level of self confidence to get up on a stage. I wouldn’t call that arrogance. In some cases, stupidity, but not arrogance.
Oh I wasn’t suggesting that all of them were arrogant by any means but a number are and I think that comes from the pressure.