Category: people

“But unlike other artists grouped under that umbrella, his work was not fueled by political dogma as much as intelligence and curiosity: How will your art experience change if you alter a choice operating assumption, often in the form of a key architectural element?”

“Clive, who was the voice of an animated John Lennon in Yellow Submarine and appeared alongside Michael Caine in The Italian Job, died on Monday. His other credits include several Carry On films, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and two Pink Panther movies. … In later life, Clive went on to become a best-selling author.”

“With her seventh Bond film about to hit the big screen, Judi Dench shows no sign, even at 77, of curbing her enormous drive. She talks about painting landscapes, playing M and why she hates to be alone on stage.”

The Downton Abbey heartthrob “is good-looking, intellectually gifted, charming, witty, adept at being unassuming, and doesn’t look ridiculous in his newsboy cap. While at Cambridge University, which he attended on scholarship, he got the first break of his career – playing Macbeth opposite Rebecca Hall, the daughter of celebrated stage director Sir Peter Hall.”

“Cicely Tyson has refused to compromise during nearly six decades in film, turning down roles she thought were two-dimensional, stereotypical depictions of African American women.”

Soyinka: “We do not welcome any attempt to ravage religious sensibilities. That can be taken for granted. But you cannot hold the world to ransom simply because some idiot chose to insult a religion in some far off place which most of the world has never even heard of.”

“His name is forever entwined with the arts in Canada. The National Ballet of Canada’s home is the Walter Carsen Centre. He gave the Art Gallery of Ontario the Walter Carsen Reading Room in its new reference library. The Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing arts recognizes lifetime careers in dance, theatre and music.”

“He was born in 1917, after all. He was a 20th century man. Mass political movements are one thing that defines the 20th century. … History had made him a communist and he was going to stay that way. Hobsbawm didn’t try to be wiser than his own times. He didn’t believe he could out-think the 20th century.”

“What sort of person writes fiction about the past? It is helpful to be acquainted with violence, because the past is violent. It is necessary to know that the people who live there are not the same as people now. It is necessary to understand that the dead are real, and have power over the living. It is helpful to have encountered the dead firsthand, in the form of ghosts.” (Mantel is all these things and more.)