ARTS / Overheard

An earlier writer, not without merit.

Terence Trent D'Arby, singer, on William Shakespeare, Arena

All of us have an unpleasant side to our nature, and I can't wait to give vent to mine.

Cliff Richard, on playing Heathcliff in his musical of Wuthering Heights, Evening Standard

It seems nuts that the papers don't get people who like contemporary art to write about it. You'd never get a sports reviewer who didn't like sport.

Damien Hirst, conceptual artist, Guardian

It makes great sense to have someone who is not particularly fear-inducing or loathsome in the role, and I'm not. Very few people fear me. There may be some people out there who loathe me, but I'm pretty much the apex of a charming, disarming, likeable kind of personage.

Tom Hanks, star of Philadelphia, Independent

It's only a movie. It ain't gonna change the world.

Denzel Washington, Hanks's co-star, Premiere

You buy some loo paper and at the end of the day you pick the one you like the look of. So with books.

Frances Coady, publisher at Random House, Independent