The Critics: Overheard

I like to kill something off symbolically, then resurrect it, blowing things up, throwing things off cliffs, having trains and a steamroller run over things.

Cornelia Parker, artist, shorlisted for the pounds 20,000 Turner Prize

What I hate most is being called blonde bimbo - although I suppose at my age I should be flattered to be thought of as a bimbo at all.

Jill Dando, TV personality, Telegraph

I wouldn't mind one for myself. Do you think you can buy them?

The newly-knighted Sir Donald Sinden, on commemorative blue plaques, London Evening Standard

Of course critics should write dismissive, funny reviews of shows like Always, because quite frankly they are not done by serious people.

Sir Cameron Mackintosh defends musicals against poor reviews, Times

It's funny ... I used to go to football matches to escape from what I did all week, which was poetry, of course. Now the game has become part of it.

Ian Macmillan, football's first ever poet in residence, appointed this week to Barnsley FC, Guardian

I have even been threatened with free tickets to his shows.

Lucian Freud's reported reaction to Andrew Lloyd Webber's efforts to persuade the artist to paint his portrait, Guardian

You expect Chekhov to be really gloomy, but this was quite uplifting.

Sean Bean, star of Chekov's early play The Wood Demon, showing at the London playhouse, London Evening Standard

Critics will ask whether it is legitimate to exploit sex as a device to market classical music or whether classical musicians should remain above such populist techniques.

Barry Millington, Times

Anna Ford rang me up this morning; she always likes to know what colour I am wearing so that we don't clash. So I told her "It's buttermilk today"

Jill Dando, Telegraph

My sons got used to talking about sex early on. Every one of them has been to me with really intimate stuff. I mean intimate.

Dr Miriam Stoppard, Daily Telegraph

Most of these properties are really period properties. You can't just bung new dormers on them.

Leonie Findlay, former chairman of Belsize Conservation ARea Advisory Committee, on Oasis star Liam Gallagher's planned extension, Telegraph

She mentioned that people never stop talking about (ital) Personal Services, but I got the impression she'd rather be remembered for (ital) Educating Rita.

Cynthia Payne on Julie Walters, star of (ital) Intimate Relations, Evening Standard

It is true I have enjoyed a glut of subject matter since the end of Thatcher.

Playwright David Hare, Evening Standard

Somebody has to take charge ... I don't always want to make the decisions, but somebody has to be the leader of the pack.

Diana Ross, Telegraph It is in his soul

That the swallow knows when to leave

And in his heart that he chooses

A fitting time to return.

Eric Cantona, Guardian