A long time ago, I heard Bill Murray say something to the effect of, "If you want to be rich and famous, try 'rich' first. You will probably be happier."
This post is great. It made me realise that not only do I not want to be famous, but that I want to live as privately as possible. I'm now much more wary about (say) using my real name online or making it easy for strangers to find out where I live and work. What's the point? In the internet age, it's never been easier for a sociopath with a vendetta to destroy my reputation and career (or worse), no matter how little I did to deserve it.
That reminds me of another Bill Murray quote: "When you become famous, you've got like a year or two where you act like a real a**. You can't help yourself. It happens to everybody. You've got like two years to pull it together — or it's permanent."
If I remember correctly, this was in the context of Chevy Chase with the point being that Chevy never figured it out and has been an a$$ ever since.
Bill Murray has something of a reputation for drawing a clear line when he's becoming too much of a center of attention in public life (an instance I'm thinking of is him asking to be left alone while watching White Sox games from the stands), and that's probably helped his career, if not also his state of mind.
Bill Murray at White Sox games? Surely you mean the Cubs.
I could be wrong, but I remember it being Comiskey. I don't think anybody expects to keep score quietly at Wrigley.
I have seen Bill Murray wrestle with his brother in a sumo suit at a minor league baseball game in Butte, MT. All that being said, he had an affinity for owning minor league teams and would show up and be himself. Butte, America is a hard town to be loved in and he is/was.
Meh, I know plenty of miserable rich people.
Maybe it's easy to be miserable despite being rich, but it's even easier to be miserable because of being poor.
But also being famous could still make them even MORE miserable!