Michael Schumacher on Coppola

Seeing Bogdanovich in the car to them, Friedkin could not resist the temptation to razz the other director with a little competitive banter. He stuck his head out of the limo's sunroof and called out to Bogdanovich, offering him a line from a review of The French Connection: "The most exciting American film in 25 years," he shouted. Then, to under-score his point, he held up his hand with all five fingers extended. "Eight nominations and five Oscars including Best Picture."

Bogdanovich responded in kind. "The Last Picture Show - a film that will revolutionise film history," he shot back, quoting from one HIS reviews. "Eight nominations, and my movie's better than yours."

As would be the case throughout much of his career, Coppola got in the last word. He stood up, poked his head out through the sunroof and roared, "The Godfather: one hundred and fifty million dollars."

The following winter, The Godfather would earn more Oscar nominations than either The French Connection or The Last Picture Show, but for the moment Coppola had proved that, even in those early heady days, he understood the real language of Hollywood.

Allan Bloom on Julius Caesar

Corialanus failed because he could not handle his people; Caesar succeeded because he betrayed his own class and won the people by appealing to what is basest in them. This is the hidden theme of the Roma plays - the corruption of the people is the key to the mastery of Rome.

Martin Amis on being left-wing

Now THAT'S being left-wing: you lie awake on your narrow cot, listening to the only other piece of furniture in the room - the hulking wardrobe, as the beetles eat it.

Saul Bellow on death

The dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything.

Martin Amis on Kingsley Amis

To a baby born without limbs.

This is just to show you whose boss around here.

It’ll keep you on your toes, so to speak,

Make you put your best foot forward, so to speak,

And give you something to turn your hand to, so to speak.

You can face up to it like a man,

Or snivvle and blubber like a baby.

That’s up to you. Nothing to do with Me.

If you take it in the right spirit,

You can have a bloody marvelous life,

With the great rewards courage brings,

And the beauty of accepting your LOT.

And think how much good it’ll do your Mum and Dad,

And your Grans and Gramps and the rest of the shower,

To be stopped being complacent.

Make sure they baptise you, though,

In case some murdering bastard

Decides to put you away quick,

Which would send you straight to LIMB-O, ha ha ha.

But just a word in your ear, if you’ve got one.

Mind you DO take this in the right spirit,

And keep a civil tongue in your head about Me.

Because if you DON’T,

I’ve got plenty of other stuff up My sleeve,

Such as Leukemia and polio,

(Which incidentally your welcome to any time,

Whatever spirit you take this in.)

I’ve given you one love-pat, right?

You don’t want another.

So watch it, Jack.

Martin Amis - Here we have the voice of omnipresent evil, but also the voice of atrocity, with its brutish facetiousness, its clunking puns. Here we have the murdering bastard who can't even spell, you can't even parse, who can't even write.

V.S.Naipal on contemporary culture

It is terrible this very plebeian culture, an aggressive plebeian culture that celebrates itself for being plebeian.

Orwell

We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those would do us harm.

E.F.Benson

I never lived my life at all. I only stayed and lunched with it.

Trollope on Patriotism

One is patriotic because one is too small and weak to be cosmopolitan.

Herzon on History

History has no libretto and this is difficult especially when there is no libretto. And if there were a libretto, then history would be unnecessary. And then it would be a practical joke.

Isaiah Berlin on Washington

No town has ever taken itself so seriously with so little reason.

The Onion on God

"God's the ultimate playa, so naturally He's gonna have some haters," rapper Ice Cube said. "But these haters need to realise that if you mess with the man upstairs, you WILL get your ass smote. True dat."

Michael Leeden on 9/11

Creative destruction is our middle name. We do it automatically and that is precisely why the tyrants hate us and are driven to attack us.

The Economist on W.

Mr Bush is the right man for the moment. His natural diffidence and his verbal dyslexia make his new willingness to stand up to the podium all the more impressive. Mr Bush was the perfect embodiment of the carefree America that died on September 11th 2001: an America which thought little about abroad, which was awash with easy money, and which saw no reason why you couldn't cut both taxes and increase social spending.

On Sous le Sable

Death by boredom, then - a new twist on the femme fatale's destructive ways. Marie increasingly appears like the beach in the film - beautiful but vacant.