'Success has brought me world idolization and millions of pounds. But it's prevented me from having the one thing we all need: A loving, ongoing relationship.'

'Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.'

- Musician Tom Petty (1950–2017)

'The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts.'

- Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022)

Prince wrote numerous hits for other artists

Prince is renowned as a performer, but he's also one of the great American songwriters, having penned career-defining songs for acts like Sinead O'Connor ("Nothing Compares 2 U"), the Bangles ("Manic Monday"), and many others.

Watch a long, personal interview with Prince from 1999

Prince often avoided press junkets, especially after he became a superstar. In 1999, though, in advance of a televised New Year's Eve concert, he sat down for a lengthy interview with Larry King, speaking about his childhood, career, and his conflicts with Warner Bros. He noted that it was uncharacteristic for him to spend so much time reflecting. "As I go through this journey, I don't look back much at all," he told King. "I try to stay in the now and live in the now."

'I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.'

-Comedian George Burns (1896-1996)

'Don't gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.'

-Reggae pioneer Bob Marley (1945-1981)

Picasso’s legacy is often intertwined with his personal relationships

Family revelations and quotes show the legendary artist as both tender and cruel, and his fame and romantic advances sometimes had disastrous effects on those around him.

'Life's short. Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there is no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands, and buts.'

'I've come to the conclusion that life is for the taking and just too short to dwell on the negative.'

- Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan (1971-2018)

'In the past, people were born royal. Nowadays, royalty comes from what you do.'

- Fashion designer Gianni Versace (1946–1997)

The 'golden age' studio system often controlled actors' personal lives

The "Big Five" studio system minted stars, but it also tightly controlled their personal lives. Homosexuality, in particular, was seen as a liability. One example is Rock Hudson, a major star in the 1950s and '60s, who was forced into an arranged marriage with his agent's secretary.

Prince had an eclectic range of influences

Early in his career, Prince would sometimes claim in interviews that he didn't listen to much music outside of his own. In later years, he'd admit that was a lie born out of arrogance. In reality, he listened to a wide array of artists, with great admiration for people like the Cocteau Twins, D'Angelo, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, De La Soul, and many others. This survey of his career's interviews collects all those mentions of other artists, creating a fascinating database of the music that inspired Prince.

'I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.'

- Actress and singer Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)

'My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.'

-Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

'You only go around once, but if you play your cards right, once is enough.'

- Frank Sinatra (1915–1998)

Lord Byron was Romanticism's chief heartthrob

A prolific and often controversial figure in life and death, Lord Byron helped shape romanticism and left an enduring literary legacy, including creating the archetype of the Byronic hero. But Byron was more than just an artist—he was also a romantic era celebrity and predecessor to the modern rock star.

'Fear of life closes off more opportunities for us than fear of death ever does.'

- Actress Agnes Moorehead (1900–1974)

'You will never feel proud of your work if you find no joy within it; your best work is always joyful work.'

- Stevie Wonder (1950-present)

'Unfortunately, many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda. For me, that was always a high priority in whatever I was doing.'

-Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier (1923-2020)

'Purple Rain' was a massive hit, in theaters and on radio

The semi-autobiographical film featured a first-time director and an amateur cast, yet it became a box-office hit, grossing over $70M. Likewise, the accompanying album was a huge success, with four songs reaching the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. It was a watershed moment for Prince, who became a bona fide pop superstar.

Prince often used pseudonyms when working with other people

Prince was seemingly everywhere in the '80s, though his ubiquity wasn't always apparent on the surface, thanks to a number of pseudonyms he used when contributing to other artists' projects.

'The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.'

- Saint Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

A quote by Magic Johnson

"Celebrate the life you had, not the life you could've had."

'All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate … I choose love.'

-Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

'The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.'

- Boxing champion Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)

Fame can trigger addictive, drug-like highs in the brain

Differences in the type of fame, such as movie stardom, sports, and internet virality, can produce varying degrees of dependence on individuals based on their age and background. Some individuals—particularly children—can develop drug-seeking behavior as they pursue continuous dopamine spikes if they lack an existing sense of fulfillment from elsewhere.

Salvador Dalí idolized Freud but was disappointed after they met

Sigmund Freud's writings on dreams and the unconscious profoundly influenced Dalí and his work, and the artist came to idolize the Austrian psychoanalyst. When they met, Freud viewed Dalí as an odd curiosity, and the artist came away disappointed, significantly lowering his opinion of the psychoanalyst.

'If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.'

- Billionaire John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)

Prince died in 2016 from an accidental fentanyl overdose

The music legend was found dead in an elevator at his Paisley Park residence on April 21, 2016. The cause of death was an accidental overdose from taking pills he believed to be Vicodin, but were actually counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl. Law enforcement was unable to determine who provided him with those pills. He was 57 at the time of his death.

'Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.'

- Inventor Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

'A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside.' - Ella Fitzgerald

'The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.'

- American musician BB King (1925-2015)

'All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.'

- Musician George Harrison (1943–2001)

'Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.'

-Author Arthur Miller (1915-2005) in "Death of a Salesman"

Even at the height of his popularity, Spielberg felt like an outsider

By 1992, Spielberg was already one of the most successful names in Hollywood, but he had trouble kicking the alienation he’d felt as a kid. In this interview from 1992, on the cusp of the biggest year of his career, he talks about that feeling and how it motivated him.

The consequences of dating as a K-pop idol

Seunghan, a star from the boy band RIIZE, experienced intense backlash for leaked photos of him kissing a woman when he was a trainee. Many fans were outraged by the images and found his behavior to be against their expectations of a wholesome K-pop idol. This article provides details about this case and gives other examples of idols who experienced a fallout with fans for having personal relationships.

'You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.'

- Musician and activist Joan Baez (1941-present)

'After you make a fool of yourself a few hundred times, you learn what works.'

- Musician Gwen Stefani (1969-present)

A dispute with his label led to Prince changing his name to a symbol

Prince wrote and recorded music at a fever pitch. That kind of prolific output, however, concerned his label, Warner Bros., which believed that too many releases might oversaturate the market. That eventually led to tensions between Prince and the label, with Prince asking for his master recordings, which would give him full control over how his music would be used. Warner Bros. declined, and Prince changed his name to the unpronounceable symbol that he'd used on album covers in the past, believing it would void his record contract. It didn't, but Warner Bros. eventually released him, though he began going by Prince in 2000 and resigned with Warner Bros. in 2014.

'Live a life so when I die, there's standing room only.'

- Tim McGraw (1967-present)

In the week after his death, 5 Prince albums appeared in the Billboard top 10

After his death in 2016, the public revisited Prince's catalog in a big way. For the first time in modern Billboard history, half of the magazine's Billboard 200 was concurrently occupied by a single artist. Three of those titles were compilations ("The Very Best of Prince," "The Hits/The B-Sides," and "Ultimate"), with the remaining two taken by studio albums ("Purple Rain" and "1999").

See a collection of LIFE's most iconic photos in history

Famous images, like a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square to celebrate the end of World War II, are each shared with context in this article. See some of history's most famous moments from a unique point of view, including photos of Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and Muhammad Ali.

One musician went to bed one night as a street sweeper and woke up a national celebrity

24-year-old Macario Martínez was making roughly $10 a day and working 8-hour shifts as a street sweeper in Mexico. The aspiring musician and composer went viral after posting a love song of his on TikTok. He has since quit his day job and has millions of listens on Spotify.

'Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.'

- Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)

Ozzy Osbourne was never comfortable with being called 'metal'

Despite being called a forefather of the genre, the Prince of Darkness said he never understood why his music was called "heavy metal." "Back in the day, it was always just rock music," he told SPIN in 2013. "It’s still just rock music."

'Voices ought not be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth.'

- Iconic singer Sam Cooke (1931–1964)

'Years ago, I tried to top everybody, but I don't anymore. I realized it was killing conversation. When you're always trying for a topper you aren't really listening.'

- Comedian Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

Prince removed the bass from 'When Doves Cry,' creating the song's unique sound.

An obituary of Salvador Dalí that captures his complicated reputation

Dalí left a complicated legacy, including controversies around his reported sympathy for fascists, abuse, and even necrophilia. Further, Dalí lost respect from people within the art world for being a sellout. His 1989 obituary captures the public ambivalence felt toward the surrealist superstar.

Some of the 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek's best quotes

"The secret to happiness, of course, is not getting what you want; it's wanting what you get."