"I'm terribly attention-seeking. It's very different once you get all this attention, though. Because then you want to control it. And you can't exactly"
About this Quote
Terribly attention-seeking is the kind of confession that lands as both self-mockery and preemptive damage control - a comic’s way of getting ahead of the audience’s eye-roll. David Walliams, a performer who built a career on being loudly visible, admits the engine under the hood: wanting to be watched isn’t an accident of fame, it’s a personality trait sharpened into a job. The adverb "terribly" does double duty, exaggerating for laughs while also hinting at genuine discomfort. He’s winking, but he’s also telling on himself.
The pivot is where the quote tightens: attention as fantasy versus attention as infrastructure. Once you "get all this attention", it stops being a simple dopamine hit and turns into a resource you feel responsible for managing. That’s the subtext of celebrity in a surveillance culture: you don’t just receive attention, you curate it, negotiate it, monetize it, and try to keep it from devouring you. Wanting to "control it" is a quietly anxious admission - control implies threat.
"And you can't exactly" trails off like a comedian leaving the punchline unsaid because the real ending is too bleak or too legally fraught. You can’t exactly control the internet, the tabloids, the public’s narrative hunger, or even your own image once it’s been copied, memed, and misread. The unfinished sentence is the point: fame produces a paradox where the thing you chased becomes the thing that chases you.
The pivot is where the quote tightens: attention as fantasy versus attention as infrastructure. Once you "get all this attention", it stops being a simple dopamine hit and turns into a resource you feel responsible for managing. That’s the subtext of celebrity in a surveillance culture: you don’t just receive attention, you curate it, negotiate it, monetize it, and try to keep it from devouring you. Wanting to "control it" is a quietly anxious admission - control implies threat.
"And you can't exactly" trails off like a comedian leaving the punchline unsaid because the real ending is too bleak or too legally fraught. You can’t exactly control the internet, the tabloids, the public’s narrative hunger, or even your own image once it’s been copied, memed, and misread. The unfinished sentence is the point: fame produces a paradox where the thing you chased becomes the thing that chases you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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