"If you’re up in the clouds on this ladder that leads to nowhere and it stops in the middle of the sky and there’s no one else around, and you look around and see this other guy 50 yards away and he’s got a ladder that’s popped up through the clouds and he’s up there looking around, it’s like two guys waving: ‘Hey, how’s it going? Are you doing okay? Are you going to say up here? You want to go down? Let’s go down. Let’s go surf, let’s play.’"
That always struck me as a lovely way to express fame. Anyway, go read Slate’s article on Slater. (And probably Outside’s piece on Andy Irons if you want to get emotional.)