ARTS / Overheard

He has two modes: sleep and overstimulation. - Harold Ramis, director of Groundhog Day, on Bill Murray, its star, Entertainment Weekly

I know people take me for an idiot, for a fool, for a black Vincent Price: I have become trapped by that reputation. But just once I would like to get on the stage and sing opera. - Screaming Jay Hawkins, Observer

I think the only way you'll get blues stuff on Virgin is if John Lee Hooker has made a Levi's advert. - Robert Chapman, radio historian, on the national rock station that starts this week, Guardian

This seems to me an immoral use of fiction. - Philip Hensher, critic, on the relation between Philip Roth's Operation Shylock and events in the Middle East, Guardian

If you've got a Western, you hire Clint Eastwood. I do snow movies. They're not quite as popular as Westerns, but it's a living. - Ethan Hawke, one of the stars of Alive, Premiere (UK)

Thirty-five years since it first arrived, it has now worked through all its variations. - Craig Brown, columnist, on pop music, Evening Standard