ARTS / Overheard

Elizabeth was a bit jelly-bags (jealous) of my success, but basically she'd rather I did well than not. - Hugh Grant, star of Four Weddings and a Funeral, on his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, Radio Times

Never come near me or my writing again, do you hear? - Jeanette Winterson, novelist, dropping in on a critic, the Observer's Nicci Gerrard, to protest at an unfriendly profile

There have been decisions made - and before I left - that were patently crazy, and they were usually made in a panic. - Simon Bates, DJ, on changes at Radio 1, Q

Authenticity, supremacy, individualism. - Graham Morris, managing director of Rover Europe, on the values shared by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and its new sponsor

We don't need books to make films. It's the last thing we want - it turns cinema into the bastard art of illustration. - Peter Greenaway, film director, on literary adaptations, Literary Review

I don't want to be seen as some sort of flagpole for nudity. I mean I'm only like this professionally. - Tara Fitzgerald on the nude scenes in the film Sirens, Time Out

English dance is riddled with mediocrity. - Derek Deane, director of the English National Ballet, Harpers and Queen

I haven't been the artist who is on young artists' minds for a long time. The artists young artists have on their minds are people I've barely heard of. I'm sure there are young artists who think I'm dead. - David Salle, artist, New Yorker