"If you're nice in this industry and you get on with people, it doesn't mean you're not going to fall. But when you're trying to get up, a person's going to reach out and help because of how you've been nice."
Career advice from Peter André, quoted in the Sunday Times
"Beer was good, he thought. It did as it was asked. In the morning its tang braced his body for the day, sluiced around it, cleaned it out. Before battle it gave him an extra pip of courage. It could make lovemaking more loving, friendship friendlier and even, sometimes, smooth the sharp edges of an argument. And it could, as now, take him into a space where no cares could reach him, insulated as he was, by the God-sent drowse of ale." From Now is the Time by Melvyn Bragg
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| The Globe Theatre |
"Theatre focuses on the importance of the moment. No matter how many times they have repeated a play, in each performance, the players strive to create the illusion of freshness, to play their roles in such a way that their characters appear to be encountering these situations, doing these actions, and saying these words for the first time. Furthermore, since the composition of the audience (one-half of the performer-spectator relationship) changes from night to night, each performance differs subtly from every other performance; when you watch a play, you participate in a one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable art work." From Theatre: The Now-Art with a Past by Norman A. Bert
“It is only by holding our breath that we begin to understand how necessary breathing is. And the best way of bringing before our minds the true magnitude of our debt to Shakespeare is to imagine for a moment or two that he never existed. His faults then pale into mere insignificance. He was a necessary man.” - Robert Nye, The Late Mr Shakespeare
"Don't need to shake my arse for you, cause I've got a brain." - Lily Allen in new song, Hard out Here
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| Reading Aloud - Julius LeBlanc Stewart |
"The point of a story is that it is that, a story, not a tract developing a moral. It is itself and it tells you." - Marion Halligan, The Apricot Colonel
‘Why did we bother fighting all those feminist battles? I know with teens the brain is not yet fully formed, but 90 per cent of young women wanting their blood sucked is not where we hoped the future was heading.’ – Bea in Nothing Personal by David Williamson
"There's only one thing better than the sound of an electric guitar, and that's the sound of two electric guitars." - Johnny Marr
"I loved our first Christmas in Australia - it's completely different to being here and it only seems to last a day, if that. I've warned Shane that ours lasts a good 10 days - most of which is spent lying on the sofa eating Quality Streets." - Liz Hurley comes to terms with the 'finer points' of relationship differences with Shane Warne. (Plus she's lying: look at her - there's no way she scoffs boxes of chocolates.)
"He's making entertainment. Hopefully, it makes you go ask questions and you Google it. If you want to learn something from a movie, watch a documentary." - Samuel L. Jackson when asked about the portrayal of slavery in Quentin Tarantion's latest film, Django Unchained
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Apart from pain. And maybe humiliation and obviously death. And failure. But apart from fear, pain and humiliation, failure and the unknown and death we have nothing to fear but fear itself." - Rimmer, Red Dwarf (Series X)
“For some, it’s a seminar room (the deadliest); for some a party (the most fun, with the most variable results); for some it’s a therapy session (avoid like the bubonic plague); and for many it’s a knocking shop (be selective). But for the best it is often a temple. Something special and magical takes place in there, and the air around it has to be carefully looked after to ensure anything is possible. This doesn’t mean everyone prays or takes off their shoes and pads around with Peter Brookish Obi-Wan faux religiosity. It means you treat it with respect and humility. And you don’t allow kids in.” - Will and Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life by Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of the Globe Theatre.
“She detested picnics: essentially one took a pile of sandwiches for a walk, settled oneself on a scratchy tartan rug, then waited for the wasps to show up.” - Anthony Quinn, Half of the Human Race
"If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer." - Clement Freud: broadcaster, writer, politician, chef
"Perhaps the 140 character limit on our thoughts has made it far easier to abuse and insult the individual rather than construct a good argument. People jump to unintelligent, incoherent and annonymous abuse online because they don't have an intelligent argument to put their name and face to." - Rachel Olding, The Canberra Times
"It's not bragging if you can back it up." - Muhammad Ali
"To sum up: it's not worth saying; it's already been said; and it's impossible to say anything adequate in any case. This is the trouble with doing research." - Lynne Truss, Talk to the Hand
“I’m a very good prophet. When it comes to predicting the past, I always get it right.” - Manuel Rivas, Books Burn Badly
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| The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse (1902) |
"Great acting is being able to say 'Pass the salt, please,' without sounding weird or odd or stupid or portentous. Great acting is being able to say 'Horror! Horror! Horror!' without sounding weird or stupid or portentous." - William Boyd, Waiting for Sunrise
