My favorite: Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton being interviewed together and Beck simply speaks truth:
Beck is telling the truth. No one can do what he does, or if they have similarly great technique, owe him a debt. Beck understands this, as does Clapton 
Anecdotal/jokey, but I’ve always liked -
[ul]
[li] “It says here that all extremely intelligent men are conceited.”[/li]“Oh, that’s not true. I’m not.”
[li] I used to be conceited, but now I’m perfect.[/li][li] I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong.[/li][/ul]
Leona Helmsley: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”[11] Helmsley denied saying this.
Whether or not she actually said it, it’s attached to her.
On a lighter note:
Martha Quinn to Jeff Beck: Jeff, when you and Eric Clapton get together, what do you say about Nigel Tufnel?
Jeff Beck: We never get together.
It is fascinating, Princhester, it definitely is. Only Olympic level humility prevents me from carrying on about it to this clearly captivated audience.
Brian Clough was well known for such quips. i.e.
“I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day. But I wasn’t on that particular job.”
“We talk about it for twenty minutes and then we decide I was right.” On dealing with a player who disagrees
How many churches are there in the world based on the Beatles v. Christianity? How many people devote their lives and commit to celibacy for the Beatles v. Christianity? How many people buy and some even carry around the stories of the Beatles v. Jesus? Does the head of the Beatles fan club have a special car and draw thousands who want to be blessed by him? Which has sold more… Beatles albums or Bibles?
I’m a huge fan of the Beatles (I’ve got framed originals of Meet the Beatles and Sgt. Pepper in my game room) but even I have to say this was a bit of an overstatement.
Was he bragging or just astonished at their success? I always thought the original statement was an off-hand remark about their popularity, I doubt he was actually comparing the band to Jesus.
“This team, it all flows from me. I’m the straw that stirs the drink. Maybe I should say me and Munson, but he can only stir it bad”. Reggie jackson as quoted by “Sport” magazine in 1977 about his new team the Yankees and its captain Thurman Munson. Jackson has maintained he was misquoted, although Dave Anderson of the New York Times says Jackson said essentially the same thing to him several months later. Five years later when Jackson signed with the Angels, he sent letters to their stars such as Rod carew and Fred Lynn saying it was their team and he wanted to help them win.
Joe DiMaggio in 1969 was voted as baseball’s greatest living player and for the next 30 years insisted that he always be introduced as such and he would be the last one introduced befitting his status.
I’m trying to think if Howard Cosell actually said anything to demonstrate his large ego (that was mixed with massive insecurity). Maybe the whole idea that he was the one who “told it like it is” coming from someone who, according to Dick Young, changed his name, lied about his age and wore a toupee. Dick Schaap in a book about the 1969 Mets relates that Cosell had Ed Kranepool on his evening sports news segment after Kranepool beat the Cubs with a 9th inning hit in a day game. Going to a bar before the broadcast, the bartenders applauded Kranepool when he walked in. Cosell nodded his head, feeling the applause must be for him.
In the Civil War General Joe Hooker said that he had the finest army on earth and that God have mercy on Robert E Lee because he would have none. Didn’t work out that way at Chancellorsville.
It may have been an off-hand remark, but yes, it was an extremely conceited thing to say. And bullshit besides.
While Wilde could be, and was, extremely arrogant, the first three lines are all spoken by fictional characters in Wilde’s creative works (and at least one of those characters, Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest, definitely isn’t a mouthpiece for the author), so I’m not sure they quite count as evidence of Wilde’s ego.
I’m not sure who’s whooshing who here, but I suspect you haven’t realised I am your grandmother and I don’t need a lesson in egg sucking.
Wow. He’s still got it. Go John.
Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli: “Musically, we are more talented than any Bob Dylan. Musically, we are more talented than Paul McCartney. Mick Jagger, his lines are not clear. He don’t know how he should produce a sound. I’m the new modern rock ‘n’ roll. I’m the new Elvis.”
Going back to early 20th Century entertainers, there was the insufferable Frank Fay on the witness stand in court: “Name?” “Frank Fay” “Occupation?” “World’s greatest comedian!” He explained that he was under oath. Getting back to more recent history, there was Jerry Lewis on the Telethon: “The Man Upstairs Goofed”!
Kelly LeBrock (remember her?) entreated us to “Not hate her because she’s beautiful.” And I tried to see if the quote was legit, but a long time ago, it was rumored that Kathleen Turner believed “If I walk into a room and a man doesn’t look at me, he’s probably gay.”
Actually this is probably just accurate. It’s not the high bar one might assume. IME pretty much everyone glances at pretty much anyone who walks into a room. And if almost any woman - no matter her looks - is dressed to kill (and Kathleen Turner probably would be) men in the room are going to look.
Of course where she goes wrong is that IME plenty of gay guys are the first to check out glamorously dressed women.
I dips me lid, nana.
If I had to vote it would be for the Beatles… however if everyone in the world got a vote I don’t think they would win.
Steve Rubell, owner of Studio 54, famously bragged to the newspapers that “only the Mafia makes more money.” Indeed, that remark triggered an IRS investigation which ultimately lead to the nightclub’s raid and closure.