ART / Overheard

We shall set targets for the number of nursery rhymes, jingles and stories children should hear by their fourth birthday . . . If we soak children in language-rich and music-rich experiences their language development will be more successful.

Prof Tim Brighouse, educationalist, Guardian

What, you mean The Ages and Ages and Ages and Ages of Innocence?

Jane Horrocks, actress, asked what she thought of

Scorsese's latest film, Premiere (UK)

A man asked me for a nude photo. It was rather an amusing letter and he promised he wouldn't show it to anyone else. Failing a completely nude photo, he said could he have one of me stripped to the waist, and failing that an ordinary photo would do. I sent him an ordinary one.

Richard Wilson, TV's Victor Meldrew, Telegraph

Why didn't I marry Chrissie? Need you ask? Listen to any of her albums.

John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), singer,

on Pretender Chrissie Hynde, Q

Starting from another person's perspective broadens your own. It's like cooking. If you cook, you often don't feel like eating the food yourself. But if someone else cooks, you're ready to take the whole range of tastes.

Zhang Yimou, film-maker, Sight and Sound

I read the book a few years ago, with deep emotion . . . I never dreamt that the social and economic crisis would have become so acute by the time the film came out.

Claude Berri on Zola's Germinal, which he has adapted for the screen, Sunday Telegraph

I think it must be because I've got a funny name.

Snoo Wilson, dramatist, on why he has had

such a chequered career, Observer

He realised he wasn't sexy or dynamic and saw himself as a pear-shaped teddy bear.

Nigel Hawthorne on John Betjeman, Radio Times