ARTS / Overheard

(Henry) Moore's seduction by the British art establishment is a textbook demonstration of the way genius here is broken, gelded and put out to grass.

George Melly, Guardian

I'm not the same as I was then. I'm not peddling the same old shit, the make-up and drag and all that fanciful rubbish . . .

I see some of the things I was

doing, and I wonder what planet I was on at the time.

Marilyn, 1980s pop star, Q

The proportion of sex in these programmes (is what) we would all expect to have in our lives, probably less.

Alan Yentob, new Controller

of BBC1, unveiling the spring

and summer collections

I wouldn't want to get naked with anyone I didn't know.

Kim Basinger, actress, defending

herself against a studio lawsuit

in a Los Angeles court

I hope the speedy action that I took and my recognition that I was insufficiently sensitive to the concern of staff will be registered with them.

John Birt, BBC Director-General

and former freelance consultant

To me rap has a real strong parallel to any traditional music, but especially country and western . . . I mean listen

to Johnny Cash] He sings, 'I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die'. That's a Geto Boys lyric]

Ice-T, rapper and actor, NME