Category: people

“Full of emotion, expressions of remorse and grief, the letters are highly charged glimpses of the impact of artists from James Whistler to Jackson Pollock at the very moment of transition from life. They are key to understanding how their legacy would be formed.”

“John Neville, O.B.E. C.M., who ran theatres on two continents, starred on stage, screen and television and could list Judi Dench, Liv Ullman and Vanessa Redgrave among his leading ladies, died in Toronto on Nov. 19 at the age of 86.”

“I was working with [director] Peter Brook once on Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ with Glenda Jackson, and he said, ‘The thing is, you’ll never be as good as the text.’ And that came as a kind of relief, really.”

Christo, busy with the new “Over the River” project, talks about making his assistants smarter, the Jeanne-Claude way – and what’s on his shopping list.

“Slatkin, 67, signed a new 3-year deal with the DSO on Tuesday, extending his tenure through the 2015-16 season. On Sunday Slatkin will also marry composer Cindy McTee at their home in Bloomfield Hills.”

“So, a dyed-in-the wool, Labour-voting millionaire – and, since 2002, a knight. One of the best living directors; also, sometimes, one of the worst; a reluctant impresario, but a fierce defender of his record; a lover of the toughest classic drama, and also of shameless sentiment. As a life in theatre goes, it is certainly eventful. Where did it all go wrong – or right?”

“Ai Weiwei is under investigation for spreading pornography, the Chinese artist has said, as the authorities turned their attention from political subversion and tax evasion to online images of nudity.”

“This has become a social performance and there are so many people involved. Even the [Chinese government-owned] Global Times. … This has generated such energy which has never happened in the history of China. If they want to crush somebody, then normally, for that person, what’s left there is just silence.”

“I came to see it as a strange, very Kabuki kind of thing, very performative. Your job is to have a lot to say up to a point. … There were things it wasn’t cool to say. There were people you weren’t supposed to mention anymore. When I got to be one of the cool kids, all I was supposed to do was answer questions about the cool kids and act like there were no other kids around.”

“Every time that I write a novel I am convinced for at least two years that it is the last one, because a novel is like a child. It takes two years after its birth. You have to take care of it. It starts walking, and then speaking. In two months I will be eighty years old. Probably I will not write another novel, and so mankind will be safe.”