ARTS / Overheard

I wanted to do something where I wasn't just a cat jumping over a car, talking real fast and laughing - Eddie Murphy on why he has made a romantic comedy, New York Times

Aids has been awfully good for the vampire - Richard Dyer, author of Children of the Night (a study of vampirism and homosexuality), Independent

He has always wanted to be Dr Johnson - Dennis Barker, a founder of Stop the Week, on its presenter Robert Robinson, Guardian

He looks very thoughtful in the painting, as though there's something going on in his head - Justin Mortimer on his portrait of Harold Pinter, Daily Telegraph

The Player has grossed virtually no money . . . If Altman had taken Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts and made the movie within the movie, that picture about a girl who was falsely accused and then he came to save her, it would have been 10 times more successful - Joel Silver, Hollywood producer, on the film that's said to be based on him, Independent