ARTS / Overheard

I'd demand rewrites on some of the more impenetrable bits of Fool's speeches . . . I'd want Shakespeare to spend a few days with some schizophrenics in a mental hospital and get him to sort out the inconsistencies.

Max Stafford-Clark, director, on King Lear, Independent

I think we are moving into an age of the end of commercial theatre as it was known.

Arthur Miller

He magnified space.

Jack Lang, France's minister of culture, speaking at Rudolf Nureyev's funeral

Like soccer without the goals.

Nancy Banks-Smith, reviewing ITV's Good Sex Guide, Guardian

For a long time I was a joke . . . The former president of CBS, Mr Yetnikoff, said to me with refreshing frankness: 'Leonard, we know you're great, but we don't know if you're any good]'

Leonard Cohen, singer and songwriter, Vox

If I want to say something I want to say it to the largest possible audience. I take no joy or satisfaction in making incestuous, self-interested films that play to two men and a dog in a bar.

Sir Richard Attenborough, Sunday Telegraph

Look, there's nothing to say you can't have children and stay up all night. I mean there's no rule that says that at all.

Mick Jagger, aged 49, Observer