BORN STANDING UP
Steve Martin

Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.

Time has helped me achieve peace with celebrity. At first I was not famous enough, then I was too famous, now I am famous just right. Oh yes, I have heard the argument that celebrities want fame when it's useful and don't when it's not. That argument is absolutely true.

In the early 1980s, a friend whose father had been killed crossing the street and whose mother had committed suicide on Mother's Day advised me, "If you have anything to work out with your parents, do it now. One day it will be too late."

There was another lengthy silence as we looked into each other's eyes. At last he said, "You did everything I wanted to do."
"I did it for you," I said. Then we wept for the lost years. I was glad I didn't say the more complicated truth: "I did it because of you."

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