Overheard

Talking about art is like dancing about architecture.

David Bowie, singer and Sunday painter, Mojo

It has become an urban myth of waste and extravagance. A neat device for redistributing wealth from the poor to the rich.

Anthony Everitt, former Arts Council secretary-general, on the Royal Opera House, London Evening Standard

People thought we were squeaky clean. That's what was so funny. I tried to be a good Mormon boy, and I was never really immoral, but I had my wild teenage years. There was one girl who I used to make out with in the garage, in my brother Wayne's Jeep.

Donny Osmond, teen idol

of the Seventies, Daily Mail

I was a much more thoughtful person before I went on TV. But I was offered speeches only after I went on TV.

Margaret Carlson, Washington columnist for Time magazine and CNN television pundit, responding to a New Yorker investigation into a lucrative sideline of American journalism

I was never easy with him or one of his fans.

Alan Bennett, playwright, on the late, revered critic Kenneth Tynan, Observer

I was 13 when I knew I wanted to be a composer, but when you're that age and growing up in Portsmouth, you don't go around telling everyone that you want to write symphonies.

Joe Jackson, singer-songwriter, Sunday Telegraph