ARTS / Overheard

We should have said yes to them all - the man who filmed his own birthday party; the table with turnips rammed through it; the video close-up of the artist's vagina . . . - Stuart Morgan on the task of putting together this year's New Contemporaries exhibition

It suggests that spontaneous self-expression, the goal of most contemporary art education, is not as liberating as it is said to be; when people spontaneously express themselves, they often just reveal how sadly similar they are. - The Independent critic's view of the New Contemporaries exhibition

I was going to write to Levis because I was busting out of my pants. It was getting so you could rest a cup of coffee on my neck. - Sylvester Stallone on training for Cliffhanger, Sunday Telegraph

You wonder why they don't just fax each other. - Judi Dench on modern-dress productions of Romeo and Juliet, Evening Standard

Obviously it proves what a good actor he is. - Debra Anderson, first wife of Sean Bean, on his performance as Lady Chatterley's lover, People