ARTS / Overheard

A lot of my stuff stems from when I was very young indeed and very unformed. So, when somebody says, 'I don't know how to love Andrew Lloyd Webber's music, it's derivative', yes, of course it is. I wrote it when I had no idea. Today I mightn't let that thing past the starting gate.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber,

Evening Standard

What they really want is a red- nosed clown with a physics degree.

Ian McCaskill, TV weatherman, Midweek (Radio 4)

It's very depressing. It's the triumph of sleaze and salesmanship over quality. The idea of the editor of Vanity Fair being made editor of the New Yorker is like moving Trump Tower to the middle of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Rick MacArthur, publisher of Harper's magazine, Sunday Times

That was the ultimate.

Jeremy Bates, tennis player, on being interviewed by the BBC's

Desmond Lynam, Mail on Sunday

Success makes life easier. It doesn't make living easier.

Bruce Springsteen, Q