Category: people

Said the selection committee chair, playwright David Henry Hwang, “With her design for the Vietnam Memorial, Maya Lin created arguably the most important piece of public art of our time. Since then, she has continued to achieve greatness, through a singular vision which has come to embrace her passionate concern for the environment – in America, China and throughout the planet.”

Ian Frazier: “He said that he always tried to draw like a child. The portrait photo he engineered of his adult self holding hands with a life-size cutout photo of himself at age six shows how seriously he took this idea. The goal was to draw like a child who never stopped drawing that way even as he aged and his subject matter became not childish.”

“It’s very liberating to write in this medium because it’s not only more intimate, but it’s more freedom to just move around a lot. … A screenplay is a very limited and rigorous kind of form, … [and] if you’re making a movie that’s costing millions of dollars, you have a lot of restrictions that, even if you’re not conscious of them, you are mindful of them.”

“Dear Mr Lars von Trier, I think you are the most disturbing director in this planet and this is why I’d really, really love to work with you … You really bring the actors on the edge of complete nervous breakdowns. Because I am a performance artist, I understand very well what you are doing.” (includes video)

“The 6-foot-6 Mr. Holder gained early renown as a dancer, leading a folk-dance troupe in his native Trinidad before moving to New York in the 1950s. He soon became a fixture in the city’s theatrical and artistic worlds, known for his rich, Caribbean-accented voice and the almost limitless range of his cultural interests.” He became a genuine celebrity thanks to a series of commercials for 7Up, “the Uncola”.

“Tall, angular and dark-haired, with a commanding, patrician voice and liquid gestures, Ms. Seldes could dominate any scene – so much so that she was sometimes criticized for overacting. She shrugged at that: She knew very well that she cut a distinctive figure. … She also had it right when she described herself as a theatrical workaholic; she was seldom offstage.”

Yuri Lyubimov has died at 97 after an intensely dramatic life. “The Taganka Theater in Moscow, which Mr. Lyubimov founded in 1964, was known for breaking rules. Its flashy, fast-moving productions included song, dance, poetry and provocation. Actors spoke directly to the audience, sometimes even when the script didn’t call for it.”

“When Griffin first rose to prominence in the ‘90s as an actress and comedian she was, in some ways, the pinnacle of the ‘un-cool’ girl. In her act she talked rapid fire about vapid subjects: friends, dating, celebrities, etc, but she didn’t have the edge of Janeane Garofalo, or the sexual brazenness of Margaret Cho. The only shtick she had was that she was willing to talk about anything with her audience.”

“People always talk about winning, vision boards, getting what you want. People also don’t talk about fear. It’s always keeping fear at bay. Squelching it. Throwing it away. I’ve embraced fear and failure as a part of my success.”

“Cumming once wound up with a vicious haircut administered with sheep shears that left the 12-year-old bleeding and half bald. … It’s hard to fathom how the terrorized little boy grew up to be the slender, joyful man who can’t stop cackling as he shows off photos of the pink neon sign saying ‘Club Cumming’ … for his dressing room.”