Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.
—Maureen Dowd, U.S. journalist. The New York Times, “Giant Puppet Show,” (September 10, 1995)
A Clock stopped—
Not the Mantel’s—
Geneva’s farthest skill
Can’t put the puppet bowing—
That just now dangled still—
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
The pretty fellows you speak of, I own entertain me sometimes, but is it impossible to be diverted with what one despises? I can laugh at a puppet show, at the same time I know there is nothing in it worth my attention or regard.
—Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)