"I've always seen myself as one of those 'show people.' My earliest memories are wanting and needing to entertain people, like a gypsy traveler who goes from place to place, city to city, performing for audiences and reaching people"
About this Quote
The "gypsy traveler" image (a now-problematic shorthand for itinerant freedom) is telling because it’s not really about leisure. It’s about motion as identity. The performer doesn’t belong to a place; she belongs to the next audience. That’s an emotionally loaded self-myth: connection on the road, intimacy at a distance, a life built on repeated first impressions. It suggests a person who understands charisma as a tool for reaching people, but also as a buffer against being truly known.
In the context of late-90s/2000s Hollywood, Murphy’s persona was often positioned as bright, vulnerable, intensely present. This quote gives that public image a private logic: entertainment as compulsion, not vanity; mobility as survival, not glamour. The subtext is bittersweet. If your earliest memory is needing to entertain, you’re not just chasing applause - you’re negotiating belonging, one room at a time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Murphy, Brittany. (2026, January 16). I've always seen myself as one of those 'show people.' My earliest memories are wanting and needing to entertain people, like a gypsy traveler who goes from place to place, city to city, performing for audiences and reaching people. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-always-seen-myself-as-one-of-those-show-109553/
Chicago Style
Murphy, Brittany. "I've always seen myself as one of those 'show people.' My earliest memories are wanting and needing to entertain people, like a gypsy traveler who goes from place to place, city to city, performing for audiences and reaching people." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-always-seen-myself-as-one-of-those-show-109553/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I've always seen myself as one of those 'show people.' My earliest memories are wanting and needing to entertain people, like a gypsy traveler who goes from place to place, city to city, performing for audiences and reaching people." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-always-seen-myself-as-one-of-those-show-109553/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.




