Overheard

He smelled beautiful, that was the most important thing. He smelled of Chanel - but not poor person's Chanel. He wafted in in a suit. It was just like Jim'll Fix It.

Suede's Brett Anderson on meeting David Bowie, NME

I was like a person at a fancy dress party. All the time I was enjoying the party I felt divorced from the key tenets of the time. A phrase like 'flower power' made my toes crawl.

Tom Stoppard remembers the Sixties, Time Out

At times it was driving me mad. I would go upstairs and say 'Christ, why can't he cheer up?'

Andrew Motion on the writing of his Larkin biography, Guardian

Roy was just too clean-cut. He staked his reputation on qualities like courage and honesty - things which just aren't so fashionable to talk about any more.

Roy of the Rovers editor Dave

Hunt on the demise of the footballing hero, The Face

The thing I wanted to be was strong, independent and jolly.

Oscar-winner Emma Thompson, on her early ambitions as an actress, New York Times

I was never going to be a kind of Meryl Streep figure. If anything like that had by some extraordinary chance occurred, I would have been very worried.

Alan Howard, the National's Macbeth, on his film career, Times