ARTS / Overheard

I can count one to 10, but not in that order. - Francis Ford Coppola, film director, US Premiere

Bad directors are the ones who want to control everything. - Anthony Hopkins, actor, Showbiz Today (CNN)

Beattie has come to be regarded as something of a Chappaquiddick in my career. - Maureen Lipman, star of the BT ads, on winning Best Actress at the Bafta Advertising Awards

Virgin is still a people company. They just have fewer of them. - Jim Fifield, president of EMI Music, on the record company he took over in June, Music Week

After a while I wanted a man, and he's the first man that I considered a friend. Women are supposed to have husbands. We validate ourselves that way. - Whitney Houston, on marrying fellow-singer Bobby Brown, New York Newsday

Christ, I always thought you were black. - Little Richard, to fellow-rocker Chris Montez, Independent

I hate plays that shout at me, making me responsible for the problems of the world. I'll take my share of the blame, but I'm damned if I am going to have some scruffy Equity member telling me off. - Alan Ayckbourn, playwright and director, Daily Telegraph