"I left the table where there were important people and had lunch with my husband and a few friends. The reception was organised in my honour, so it was rather amusing"
About this Quote
"Important people" is deliberately vague, a deflating phrase that collapses the whole hierarchy into a single, faintly ridiculous category. It reads like someone who has spent decades in rooms full of prestige and has stopped being impressed by any of it. The amusement comes from the inversion: etiquette says the honoree performs gratitude, accepts proximity to power, and plays along. Mouskouri opts for intimacy over optics, suggesting that the only truly important people are the ones you choose when no one is watching.
Context matters here. As a globally famous musician - and a woman who built a long career across languages, markets, and institutions - she’d have been endlessly "honoured" in ways that can feel like soft control: smile for the photo, sit where you're placed, validate the event by being compliant. Her line lands because it’s not a manifesto. It’s a shrug with teeth, reminding us how often "honour" is just a polite way of managing someone else's status game.
Quote Details
| Topic | Husband & Wife |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Mouskouri, Nana. (2026, January 16). I left the table where there were important people and had lunch with my husband and a few friends. The reception was organised in my honour, so it was rather amusing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-left-the-table-where-there-were-important-134230/
Chicago Style
Mouskouri, Nana. "I left the table where there were important people and had lunch with my husband and a few friends. The reception was organised in my honour, so it was rather amusing." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-left-the-table-where-there-were-important-134230/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I left the table where there were important people and had lunch with my husband and a few friends. The reception was organised in my honour, so it was rather amusing." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-left-the-table-where-there-were-important-134230/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.





