Welcome to our collection of Show Business Quotes, where we delve into the insightful, humorous, and profound statements made by individuals who have shaped the landscape of the entertainment industry. Show business, with its glitz, glamour, and myriad of talents, has long fascinated and captivated audiences worldwide. From actors and directors to musicians and producers, the world of entertainment is filled with colorful personalities whose words often carry as much weight as their performances on stage and screen.
In this curated selection of quotes, you’ll find wisdom distilled from the experiences of those who have navigated the highs and lows of show business. These quotes offer a glimpse into the mindset, the struggles, the triumphs, and the enduring passion that drives individuals to pursue their dreams in this dynamic and competitive industry. Whether you’re an aspiring artist seeking motivation, a seasoned professional in need of inspiration, or simply an enthusiast of the arts, these quotes provide a window into the ethos of show business.
Now, without further ado, explore the world of show business through the words of its luminaries, and discover insights that resonate with you on your own journey through the realm of entertainment.
Politics is show business for ugly people. Paul Begala
People deal with grief in many different ways. And some people in show business parade their relationships around like an accessory, and others like to keep it separate from business and commerce. It’s perfectly fine to say, ‘I actually don’t want to talk about my love because that’s not part of the fantasy world I created in commerce.’ RuPaul
I really sing songs that move me. I’m not in show business. I’m in the communications business. That’s what it’s for me. Richie Havens
I started out as an actor, where you seek to understand yourself using the words of great writers and collaborating with other creative people. Then I slid into show business, where you seek only an audience’s approval whether you deserve it or not. Alec Baldwin
I want to tell my jokes. I want to have time with my children. I want to entertain people. And at one point, I’ll walk away from show business. But I don’t want to walk away empty-handed. Dave Chappelle
The first rule of show business is get off the stage while people still want more. Terence Winter
I was brought up to do my duty. Not to be vain, not to shout from the rooftops about my virtues – to be modest and well-behaved. I’m totally wrong for show business. Terry Wogan
Well, I was sort of a jack-of-all-trades in show business for a long time. I was a singer and a dancer and then I got a job as an actor. Christopher Walken
I do have to say, there is this incredible benefit to being older. I never thought I’d say that. I’ve figured out that show business isn’t the end-all. I thought I’d never be tired of Hollywood, of the experience, and I have to say there’s some relief. As you get older, your taste changes. Jennifer Coolidge
I’m not all that enthralled by show business, and I’m not that much of a highbrow. Dick Cavett
I think I’m lucky having parents that have been in show business for a while, and they don’t care about the shiny stuff so much. They raised me in that way – to stay grounded, not to chase the shiny, pretty things. Zoe Kravitz
I could’ve always worked shows, clubs, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, but I was successful in business ventures, and things weren’t happening in show business, so I said, ‘Let me see what I can do.’ Gabe Kaplan
People don’t realize that we, we meaning people in show business, have the same problems as everyone else. Money doesn’t change that. Fame doesn’t change that. Sometimes that brings on more problems. You know, it’s just a different kind of problems. Dolly Parton
I grew up in a show business family, so we’ve always had a great sense of balance, being so close to my parents. I’ve always known what is and isn’t reality. Andy Gibb
Stand-up don’t get no respect – it’s the hardest thing to do in show business. You don’t have no band and there’s no music. Tracy Morgan
I love my family very much. I wish I could see them a little more often than I do. But we understand because we’re a show business family and we all work. Michael Jackson
There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up. Billie Holiday
Mom never quit on me. My only regret is that she didn’t live long enough to share some of the money and comforts my work in show business has brought me. Ethel Waters
I was never really brought into the show business side of my father’s life. I guess that’s been a blessing and a downfall. But it’s made my own work the initiation. Stephanie Zimbalist
The great thing about show business is that there’s no mandatory retirement age. Scott Bakula
My mother did play classical piano, not that well. And actually, my father sang with the big bands – he sang with Bob Crosby’s band – but he had to give up show business when his father died. He had to come back to Montgomery and take over the furniture store. Toni Tennille
I like to act. Every other aspect of show business I find uninteresting. J. K. Simmons
That’s what I loved about show business, no two days were alike. It’s an exciting life. Barbara Mandrell
I was studying pre-med at UCLA when I decided show business was for me, and the best way to make it was in music. I had just one problem. I was tone deaf. Barbi Benton
Before I came out, I had a lot of anger. For years people would ask, ‘How are you doing?’ and I’d say, ‘Good, fine.’ It’s show business, and that’s what you have to show. Ricky Martin
I’ve done about everything in show business except to play on Broadway. I always hoped that I would one day. It’s the World Series of show business. If anybody tells you they’re not intimidated, they’re lying. Cyd Charisse
I love performing, but I never really liked show business. My success is my family. I want to be more successful as a mother. Celine Dion
At home, we don’t listen to our music-we listen to other people’s music. It keeps you attached to the show business world. Celine Dion
Part of show business is magic. You don’t know how it happens. Sammy Davis, Jr.
When I was in college, I was debating to try my hand at show business, or to become a professor. I just thought of the risk of not going into show business and always wondering if I would’ve had a chance. Because that’s where my real heart was. Steve Martin
Yes, I have a good sense of humor to sort of last a long time in show business, and I think to be able to find comedic value in who you are and the people that you work is always a good thing. Jane Krakowski
I’m very leery of show business, having been in Los Angeles for the last 10 years. Buzz is a dangerous thing that I’ve heard applied to a lot of people that I’ve since not heard of again. Greg Kinnear
The press criticism made me feel at times like I was someone who had landed from outer space and, to my parents, being in show business was the worst thing you could be. Especially because I did drag, they didn’t think much of it. Divine
Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by show business, the theater. Milos Forman
I have accomplished my childhood dream: to be in show business. Everybody should be so lucky to have their dreams come true. I’ve been truly blessed. Dick Clark
All of us kids ended up ‘doing Mom.’ There are four of us who’ve tried show business. Five if you insist on counting my sister the nun, who does liturgical dance. Bill Murray
I’ve stated that it’s possible the only reason I’m in show business is that I have such a strange, particular head of hair. That, and I can grow a red beard. T. J. Miller
We’re against hypocrisy, lies, bigotry, show business, insincerity, phonies, and fakers. Ian Brown
I think I’m great. I mean, I might as well come out and say it. Like most people, I have an ego and I’m in show business, so you have to have kind of a healthy, conflagrated ego to a degree. On the other hand, I’m consumed, like a lot of people, with self-doubt and loathing and guilt. Loudon Wainwright III
Continuity is a wonderful thing, and it is a very rare thing in show business. David L. Wolper
My dad’s a lighting director. Growing up in Hollywood, I was around the entertainment industry all the time. I knew I’d end up in show business in some capacity, eventually. Meghan Markle
I don’t have any ego about it, but I find there’s not a great work ethic in show business. A lot of people are in it to make money, and coming from stand-up, you have to work so hard because almost nothing works, and if you lose the audience for three minutes, you’re dead. Norm MacDonald
The only thing harder than leaving show business is coming back. Dave Chappelle
I stayed in show business to pay for my animal business. Betty White
I never called my work an ‘art’. It’s part of show business, the business of building entertainment. Walt Disney
I’m not sure if I’ve learned anything from show business. Life in general has taught me if you’re kind to people, everything gets easier. Being a decent person really smoothes the way for you and everyone else. Alan Arkin
I’ve made movies that I thought were good. I’ve made movies that I thought were okay, but then I was very good. And sometimes you’re in a movie and you think, I wish more people saw that – because you’re good. And it just works out that the movie gets lost. But that’s show business. Christopher Walken
Show business is made up of disappointments, and it’s through life’s disappointments that you grow. Minnie Pearl
I did not have a happy family life a few years ago. I was divorced, and I was very alienated from my daughter, and I was out there cutting every ribbon and running around New York hosting events for different causes to supplant my loss because I didn’t have a family to go home to. Now I don’t want to be Mr. Show Business anymore. Alec Baldwin
I didn’t learn fire-eating to conquer my fears. I learned fire-eating because I desperately wanted to be in show business. Penn Jillette
Anything can change in show business; you know how it goes, everything changes from one day to the other. Ricky Martin
I think it’s one of the main negative emotional ingredients that fuels show business, because there’s so much at stake and the fear of failure looms large. Garry Shandling
L.A. can be pretty insane because there’s so much show business here, but I also know a lot of kids who grew up in Manhattan who are some of the most normal, nicest people I know. Casting directors always say Chicago people are just nicer. Matt Walsh
I’m an introvert at heart… And show business – even though I’ve loved it so much – has always been hard for me. Roy Rogers
If you look around at the people in show business today they are basically the people who didn’t give up. Brent Spiner
I wrote a little autobiography about how luck has to do with everything. It’s called ‘My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.’ A publisher came to me and said, ‘Write a book,’ so I did. I wanted to call it ‘Everybody Else Has Got a Book.’ Dick Van Dyke
Show business is the best possible therapy for remorse. Anita Loos
I want to be more successful as a mother than I am in show business. Celine Dion
Spontaneity is such an entertaining facet of show business. Chuck Barris
I went into show business because I love to work with people, and what I enjoy most about acting is rehearsing and getting to know people and their talents, forming relationships. Working in this business, barriers drop and you get into people real quickly. Scott Bakula
There’s no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting. David Letterman
I think it’s a terrible shame that politics has become show business. Sydney Pollack
There is more to life than show business. Garry Marshall
I never wanted to be in the show business. I wanted to do special effects. Emraan Hashmi
If I’d married someone in show business, there’d be too much competition. Dolly Parton
Oddly enough, Dame Edna is not interested in show business. Her friends in Los Angeles are mostly in the world of petroleum. She used to have some acting friends. Sadly, Joan Rivers has passed on. Larry Hagman was a close friend. A number of others. Barry Humphries
There’s no business like show business. Irving Berlin
That’s what show business is, sincere insincerity. Benny Hill
The show business has all phases and grades of dignity, from the exhibition of a monkey to the exposition of that highest art in music or the drama which secures for the gifted artists a world-wide fame princes well might envy. P. T. Barnum
No matter what the role, you’re trying to do the impossible – make a living in show business. Peter Gallagher
I like being from a city that is not entrenched in show business. When you’re in New York City or Los Angeles, even if you’re not dealing with show business, there’s still this sense that it’s the center of the universe. Ed Helms
Magic is the oldest part of the show business profession. It can now be used as a forward-thinking tool to build a child’s confidence. It has been an amazing part in many entertainers’ lives, including Steve Martin and the late Johnny Carson. Criss Angel
I always wanted to be in show business or whatever you want to call this crazy world, to be an actor or a movie star or whatever. Divine
The nature of show business is people within the business feel that if someone else fails, they move up a notch. Tom Arnold
I think I definitely would have ended up in some kind of show business. I was very interested in music when I was younger. This was back when Crosby, Stills and Nash were around. Kevin Nealon
I’ve been in show business for 50, no, 60 years. I was approached in school to join a variety act. Kenny Baker
Creative people don’t behave very well generally. If you’re looking for examples of good relationships in show business, you’re gonna be depressed real fast. I don’t have time for anything else right now but work and my daughter. She’s my first priority. Jim Carrey
I knew what show business was, which was why I didn’t want in on that action. I saw what happens! You get it, and then you lose it. Carrie Fisher
I came from a real working-class show business family. Sally Field
Am I a homophobe? Look, I work in show business. I am awash in gay people, as colleagues and as friends. Alec Baldwin
I’m in show business… I want to hang out with Janet Jackson, not Jesse Jackson. Chris Rock
Playing music is the best thing in the world. It makes show business almost bearable. David Johansen
I didn’t get here for my acting… but I love show business. Ted Turner
I am kind of a private person, so I don’t miss that part of show business at all. Looking back on my career in television and making a movie like ‘The Sound of Music’ from an adult point of view, it actually seems kind of unreal. I was involved in shows that people grew up with – that hold memories for them – and it’s a cool feeling. Angela Cartwright
I love every aspect of show business and that includes both the show part of it and the business part of it. Kristy Swanson
Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living. Ethel Merman
All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel… and that’s what I’ve been doing all my life. Count Basie
I was always in show business but in many ways was not really of show business. I didn’t move in show business circles, particularly, still don’t do it. Dick Van Dyke
I believe most people don’t go into show business unless they’ve been majorly unloved as a child. Ryan Murphy
I’d still like to see ‘Survivor’ minus the planned show-biz parts. That would be the purest form of show business – I want to see someone so hungry that they eat somebody else’s foot. Albert Brooks
Julianne Moore and Michael Keaton began in 1980s soap operas and 1970s sitcoms, respectively, such ancient history by show business standards that you need carbon dating to measure their careers. Steve Erickson
Show business is just like high school, except you get paid. Martin Mull
Politics is just show business for ugly people. Jay Leno
I have a girlfriend, but I don’t really want to talk about her. I won’t name her. She isn’t in show business, has nothing to do with it. So I’d rather just keep her out of it. Luke Perry
I wanted to be in show business, and I was funny. Tom Smothers
There came a time when I had to decide between show business and devoting my full time to medical training. I chose show business. Barbi Benton
Going to New York to do whatever – show business – it just seemed fun. It seemed fun to go to the big city and meet all kinds of different people and maybe be famous. It was just exciting. So I wasn’t scared. January Jones
I’ve been in show business for parts of six decades. Soupy Sales
If I lose show business – I’ll really be an orphan! Red Buttons
See, every thing in show business is a lie. It ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. You are in situations where you are forced to think that you are better than everybody else because of the pedestal the fans place you on. It’s a lie. This is just a job, a high-profile job. You have to keep that in perspective and not get caught up in the hype. Ginuwine
