OVERHEARD

It's amazing what you can do with an E grade in A-level art and a twisted imagination.

Damien Hirst, artist and winner of this year's Turner Prize

Nonsensical, irrational and deeply boring.

Stupid, foolish, insane and idiotic. We're underfunded to start with.

Could lead to the wholesale destruction of the arts in this country.

Yet another blow to Britain's greatest success story - the arts.

Stephen Daldry, artistic director of the Royal Court, Dan Crawford, artistic director of the King's Head, Ian McDiarmid, artistic director of the Almeida, and Dennis Marks of the ENO give their reaction to news of the Arts Council's budget cuts, London Evening Standard

1995 was supposed to be British Year of Arts and Culture. It is no longer a celebration, but a wake.

Jennifer Edwards, of the National Campaign for the Arts, on those same cuts

It's too draggy and slow. I wish Paul would have contacted us to do a bit of a souped-up mix.

Mike Stock (of Stock, Aitken and Waterman) on the Beatles' "Free as a Bird", Telegraph

Vogue said that Late Night Line-Up was one of the best party spots around ... we had a drinks cabinet and partied every night all through the Sixties.

Joan Bakewell, broadcaster, Times

[Art is] the three-letter word that we're not allowed to talk about in relation to acting.

Simon Callow, actor and director, RSC Magazine

I would challenge you to tell us and the BBC apart.

Julian Aston, managing director of cable TV's Channel 1, London Evening Standard

How many million? Millions, millions, millions, millions, millions and millions - the pig!

Roseanne Barr, comic, on the size of her ex-husband's divorce settlement

The only way of telling a sci-fi story is to tell a human story. The problem with most sci-fi is that everyone gets enthralled with the science and forgets the fiction of it.

William Shatner, Star Trek actor and director, Preview

It's a bit like being a virgin in one of those Victorian melodramas ... as soon as it starts it's wonderful! I don't know why it hadn't crossed my mind before how exciting it is realising what you as a writer had in your mind.

Christopher Hampton, writer and now director, ibid