Not selling out, Truman Capote on
“I knew damn well I’d never be a movie star. It’s too hard; and if you’re intelligent, it’s too embarrassing. My complexes aren’t inferior enough: being a movie star and having a big fat ego are supposed to go hand-in-hand; actually, it’s essential not to have any ego at all. I don’t mean I’d mind being rich and famous. That’s very much on my schedule, and someday I’ll try to get around to it; but if that happens, I’d like to have my ego tagging along. I want to still be me when I wake up one fine morning and have breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
-Holly (Lulamae Barnes) Golightly, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
A fairly perfect explication of how the climb to “success” typically requires that we lose the heavy baggage of our selves (our souls, our egos, what have you).
