When asked how I would like to be remembered, I always say, for about five minutes.

ACTOR MARTIN SHEEN

My father said once when I was 13, 'Perhaps the best reason to be British is because Shakespeare was British'. I thought that was a bit bonkers. But he was dead right.

LYRICIST TIM RICE

If you ask me how many children I should have, I would say four, because this is the number that now scampers around my house and to contemplate having fewer or more of them would be as painful as the thought of having fewer or more limbs.

WRITER MA JIAN