ARTS / Overheard

Saturday 01 October 1994 23:02 BST
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I never went for the Welsh-wizardry and didn't like the way he cultivated or acquired the Olivier mannerisms - the sudden fortissimos, the instant access to the emotions, and all the characteristics of the shouting school of acting.

Alan Bennett, playwright and actor, on Richard Burton, Observer

Vulgar squalor . . . (Michael Powell) did not write Peeping Tom, but he cannot wash his hands of responsibility for this essentially vicious film.

Dilys Powell, film critic, Sunday Times, at the time Peeping Tom came out (1960)

Today, I am convinced that it is a masterpiece. If, in some afterlife, conversation is permitted, I shall think it my duty to seek out Michael Powell and apologise.

Dilys Powell on Peeping Tom, now back in the cinema, Premiere (1994)

I'm skinny, got bad skin, I've always been a little hard to pin down sexually, I've got funny hair, I write gender-non-specific songs, I wore a hat that said 'White House Stop Aids', I wrote a record about death, didn't talk to the press. It all kinda adds up.

Michael Stipe, singer with REM, on rumours that he had Aids, Guardian

Many people have gifts like mine, speaking French and German, being able to write a bit and play the piano.

Jeremy Sams, translator, librettist, composer and director, Time Out

Ginny Dougary is really rather attractive. Pasty and overplump, eyes too small, hair not washed often enough, she has nonetheless a special vitality and enthusiasm that gives her . . . allure.

Alan Clark, MP, on the interviewer and author of The Executive Tart, Spectator

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