Tim Winton

'I don't see optimism as an emotional state or an emotional dispensation. It's a discipline that you adopt because the alternative is despair.'' Tim Winton

Matt Berninger

"I passed Leonard Cohen between two tents at a festival in Barcelona and he complimented my hat. Those were the only words he said to me: 'Nice hat', so that was a big moment for me. In reality though, it was a stupid looking hat. I wore it for a few days, Leonard Cohen says, 'Nice hat,' then I get home, my wife sees it, and says, 'You look like an idiot.''" Matt Berninger

Garrison Keillor

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together." Garrison Keillor

Peter Sellers

"I writhe when I see myself on the screen. I'm such a dreadfully clumsy hulking image. I say to myself, 'Why doesn't he get off? Why doesn't he get off?' I mean, I look like such an idiot... I must stop thinking about it, otherwise I shan't be able to go on working." Peter Sellers

Emmylou Harris

"The only time I ever appeared in the 'Enquirer' was for a piece about people who let their hair grow gray. I guess I'm not much of a wild child." Emmylou Harris

Wayne Coyne

"Most of the coolest people you'll ever talk to will get down to the most basic thing that we all share: just gossipy, funny bullshit. I've realised that's where the truth lies. The bullshit is the truth." Wayne Coyne

Spike Milligan

"The cliche is the handrail of the crippled mind." Spike Milligan

Martin Freeman

"I was quite fetishistic about forcing my tastes onto people. You're basically finding out if she's going to be a runner or not. 'If you like these songs then we've got hope, but if you don't then it might be a short-lived thing.'" Martin Freeman

Idris Elba

"Do you think I'm terrifying? I always wondered about that." Idris Elba

Kim Deal

"It was a town of hair metal and we hated it. Girls were supposed to be sexy whores in white pants – they weren't allowed to rock... We played in bars and ignored what people said. After all, we knew that the people who thought they were badass didn't rock at all." Kim Deal

Glenn Robbins

"We’re all basically the same. We have the same little insecurities. The things we do from day to day happen to all of us. If you let an audience know that, they find it reassuring that somebody else thinks in a similar way. That’s what comedy is about – it’s all about reassurance." Glenn Robbins

Yoshitomo Nara

"I do paintings because I can't express myself well in words. I try now and then but after I speak I always regret the following day that it was wrongly put". Yoshitomo Nara

Charlotte Gainsbourg

"I'm always dissatisfied. Always. Not so much with the work, more with myself. I have so many doubts that they constantly pull me down but now I can see that this is my way of working. The self-questioning is my method. I've realised that I like being unbalanced. I like feeling insecure. To be able to do one take and be crap and then another and be great, that's the rollercoaster I like." Charlotte Gainsbourg

Morrissey

"I am still my teenage self. If you think that we all step through a door marked Adult, or that we sign a Grown-Up Document, you’re quite wrong. We remain as we always were, and that, alas, is one of life’s many nasty tricks." Morrissey

Dai Henwood

"I once performed at a Pak 'n Save as Ches of Ches and Dale from the Chesdale Cheese ad. I had to sing the Chesdale Cheese jingle while being mocked by small children." Dai Henwood

Chan Marshall

“Now that I’m 40, I want to be happy like I was when I was a kid flipping on the trampoline listening to Van Halen’s ‘Jump.’ I want to remember how to be happy like I was when I was able to roller-skate backwards... When I walked out of the mental ward at Mount Sinai, I realized that my life was in my hands. I realized it was my responsibility to live my life." Chan Marshall

Quentin Crisp

"There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years, the dirt doesn't get any worse. It's just a question of keeping your nerve." Quentin Crisp

Yves St Laurent

"I'd really like to be in closer contact with life. I'm a little too distant, I guess. I like to place myself outside." Yves St Laurent

Judy Blume

"Censors don’t come near you unless they know kids like your books. They’re not sitting there reading all of the books. They are waiting until they find out if kids like it first." Judy Blume

Ally Sheedy

"Everyone was wearing designer clothes and kissing ass at parties, where all the people were disgusting. I hate bullshit. People are most themselves when they’re honest. And when you don’t want anything, you can be very honest.” Ally Sheedy

Lawrence Arabia (aka James Milne)

"Amount of time spent per week agonising over the placement of exclamation marks in emails? Three hours." Lawrence Arabia

James McAvoy

“Even now when I’m auditioning, I’ll often stick in a wee thing or an extra line that I know will be disarming for the lady I’m acting with... Well, not necessarily disarming. Hopefully non-repellent." James McAvoy

Vincent Cassel

"Good guys need to be a little dirty otherwise they’re just boring. The bad guys, if they’re only dirty, then they’re not interesting... you have to find something good in them." Vincent Cassel

Michel Gondry





"I don't like the idea of competition - maybe because I kept losing them when I was a kid. Maybe it's better to be the one who loses?" Michel Gondry



Werner Herzog

"There's a completely new culture out there. I'm not a participant of texting and driving—or texting at all—but I see there's something going on in civilization which is coming with great vehemence at us". Werner Herzog

Ryan Dunn

"I have to be horrible at everything or else it wouldn't be me." Ryan Dunn

Zosia Mamet

"Ninety percent of the time when I go on dates, I'm thinking, 'I could be reading my book instead.'" Zosia Mamet

Eric Cantona



"I'm proud of what I achieved, but life on memories is not much of a life." Eric Cantona

Paddy Considine

"I'd like to master some of the basics before I move on to super powers. I can't even put up shelving." Paddy Considine

Adam Horovitz

"I love New York. As I speak I see the old lady across the street staring out her window. So the people are still, you know, staring out their windows." Adam Horovitz

Chris O'Dowd

"I'd like my super power to be puns; I'd like to be great at puns: pun power. Then I could go on loads of panel shows and live off that forever." Chris O'Dowd

Ahmir Thompson (Questlove)

"If you tell me to take an orchestra and do an impressionist turn-of-the-century Debussy or Stravinsky, and to incorporate some jazz and to do a hip-hop rhyme in 7/8 meter and to do it in 14 minutes, I can do that in my sleep. But if you tell me to colour within the lines and produce a simple, effective three-minute pop song, you would discover me nine hours later on the floor with my hair out of my head and blood on the floor.” Ahmir Questlove Thompson

Truman Capote

"I am a completely horizontal author. I can't think unless I'm lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy. I've got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tea to sherry to martinis." Truman Capote

Paul McGann

"My mum recently reminded me that I used to drink Liebfraumilch. I had to ask her to shut up." Paul McGann

Milan Kundera

“You can't measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.” Milan Kundera

Imtiaz Ali

"I have been made by accidents and failures. Anything I wanted to do and achieve has not been influential in my life, but my failures have." Imtiaz Ali 

Michael Imperioli

"People always seem a bit disappointed I'm not more like Christopher." Michael Imperioli

Richard Linklater

"Daydreaming is a productive activity." Richard Linklater.



Nick Hornby

"I wouldn't call it depression. It's just a sort of strain of English miserablism, where you know everything is crap and everyone who pretends it isn't is kidding themselves. Yeah, this is the best it will ever get." Nick Hornby

Andrew Bird

"I create little challenges for myself, like, 'Okay, whatever you do in this song, you've got to somehow work in Greek Cypriots,' or something like that." Andrew Bird

Aki Kaurismaki

"I might look like a cool guy, but I am most sentimental. I care about others, not too much about myself." Aki Kaurismaki

Alex Kapranos

"Arty. To me the word's got as much venom associated with it as 'wacky'." Alex Kapranos.

Sergei Bodrov Jr

"No one ever knows if they're shooting their debut or their epilogue." Sergei Bodrov Jr

Alan Ruck

"The first time I ever saw [Ferris Bueller's Day Off] I was mortified. I was like, well, you know, I'm going to have to learn to do something else because this may not work out." Alan Ruck

Fab Moretti

“To us, in our story, he became kind of the good guy and a representative of feeling awkward and incapable of assimilating into a society. .. like many of us have felt before, you know?” Fabrizio Moretti

Vikram Seth

“I sometimes seem to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.” Vikram Seth

Stephen Malkmus

"I'm done with the extra cable channels, the Juggalos and Tila Tequila and Martin Sheen's son. I just can't take it anymore". Stephen Malkmus

Hayao Miyazaki

"My process is thinking... thinking... and thinking. If you have a better way, please let me know." Hayao Miyazaki