# Quote — John Updike, Self-Consciousness

> Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being “somebody,” to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation. One can either see or be seen.

- Author: [John Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike.md)
- Book: [Self-Consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike/self-consciousness.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Self-Consciousness_:_Memoirs_(1989)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike/self-consciousness/celebrity-is-a-mask

## More from this book

> The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives for ever.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike/self-consciousness/the-essential-self.md)

> To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike/self-consciousness/to-say-that.md)

> Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike/self-consciousness/dreams-come-true.md)