“I never wanted to be famous. That’s a byproduct of what I do. Fame is truly a byproduct of the dream that I had. People want to be recognized for their work, but nobody wants to be famous for nothing. Fame is, I think, disgusting. And it’s really hard to separate your public life from your personal life. Useless fame is disgusting. I think if you’ve got a talent or something to offer, a creative thing to offer to the world, then I think that’s beautiful. But that famous for nothing thing is kind of gross. It’s a bummer. And, you know, I only ever just wanted to make music and be on stage and play, and offer up my perception of how I view the world, through the songs that I write. But then there’s a lot of different things that come with it, and I call them trade-offs. I can’t necessarily go downstairs and, like, touch the tree, but I can do a lot of other things.”
– Katy Perry discussing fame, RollingStone.com, August 5th, 2014