#al

She goes on the set with headphones and gives you notes. She's terrific and I always run to her now, because she is just great to work with, as well as very good at different accents. ↗

— Albert Finney

#always #because #different #gives #goes

When Lalit Modi came to the podium after the final of the third Indian Premier League, with minutes ticking away on his reign, he had what few administrators at presentation ceremonies can claim to have enjoyed: a captive audience. What would it be? You won't have Modi to kick around any more, a la Richard Nixon? Old BCCI vice-presidents never die, they just fade away, a la Douglas MacArthur? Not quite, although Modi, for him, flirted with rhetoric: 'Indian People's League… I have lived a dream… Humble servant of the game.' Then there was the quote from the Bhagavad Gita, which some oblivious viewers may have mistaken for another sponsor (coming soon: the Mahabharata Moment of Success). Finally there came a defiant roar: 'We should not allow this brand to be diluted and we will not. ↗

— Gideon Haigh

#commercialism #cricket #douglas-macarthur #indian-premier-league #lalit-modi

But I have always - ever since The Accidental Woman - written novels about individuals attempting to make choices in the context of situations over which they have no control. ↗

— Jonathan Coe

#accidental #always #attempting #choices #context

I became quite taken over by Johnson's personality at some points while writing the biography, and since I went straight on to The Closed Circle afterwards, I did sometimes feel I could hear him whispering in my ear while I was working on it. ↗

— Jonathan Coe

#became #biography #circle #closed #could

The world is not going into concentric blocs of power. It is actually going into a diffusion of power with more centres of decision-making than ever in human civilisation. That requires you to place yourself in far more hubs of power than ever before. ↗

— William Hague

#before #blocs #centres #civilisation #decision-making

I have two ideas for novels at the moment, neither of them all that conventional, but I'm not ready to choose between them yet, let alone settle down to the process of writing. ↗

— Jonathan Coe

#between #choose #conventional #down #i

Richard doesn't really like me to kill bugs, but sometimes I can't help it. ↗

— Cindy Crawford

#help #i #kill #like #me

I live a perfectly happy and comfortable life in Blair's Britain, but I can't work up much affection for the culture we've created for ourselves: it's too cynical, too knowing, too ironic, too empty of real value and meaning. ↗

— Jonathan Coe

#blair #britain #comfortable #comfortable life #created

Luckily, in my case, I have managed, by writing, to do the one thing that I always wanted to do. ↗

— Jonathan Coe

#case #i #i always #luckily #managed

The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it. ↗

— Jonathan Coe

#biggest #books #closest #coincidence #countries