"There's the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet"
About this Quote
The intent is less confessional than tactical. Coming from an actor - someone whose job is to be legible, watchable, consumable - it reads like a boundary-setting memo to the culture that thinks access equals truth. The subtext: the public doesn’t just observe you; it edits you. Publicness creates a third party in every interaction: the imagined audience, the headline, the screenshot. Once that audience exists, even “real” moments start performing, and privacy stops being a place and becomes a practice.
It also hints at a kind of professional melancholy. Actors trade in persona by design, but celebrity demands that the person become a product line. Schreiber’s phrasing pushes back against the interview-industrial complex that wants anecdotes as proof of character. He’s not claiming he’s unknowable; he’s arguing that the version of him you recognize is inherently collaborative: built from roles, press, gossip, and projection.
In a culture that markets vulnerability as content, the quote works as a dry refusal. It insists that separation isn’t deceit - it’s survival.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Schreiber, Liev. (n.d.). There's the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-the-private-persona-and-the-public-persona-134013/
Chicago Style
Schreiber, Liev. "There's the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-the-private-persona-and-the-public-persona-134013/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There's the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-the-private-persona-and-the-public-persona-134013/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.










