“I cannot recall a more persuasive or better-orchestrated effort than that mobilized on behalf of Mickey Rourke for ‘best actor’" (at the Academy Awards to come). —Peter Bart, editor-in-chief of Daily Variety

“Go away!” —Anna Wintour when asked if she was “tired out” and “ready to move on” from Vogue

“I’ll never reach that state of popularity again and I’m not going to try!” —Leonardo DiCaprio when reminded of his box office appeal in the movie “Titanic”

“It’s not even about whether Father Flynn did something or not. You never know, and that’s why this play’s so great.” —Philip Seymour Hoffman on his character in the John Patrick Shanley movie “Doubt”

“Reading the ad pages for The New Yorker these days is like reading the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead.’” —David Remnick, the editor

“Overhaul the Oscarcast … present half the awards off-camera … While I love short films, how often do you see them on the big screen? … Put those categories online … acknowledge the year’s big moneymakers by having clips of stars and filmmakers talking about them … use a flurry of hosts (Chris Rock backstage; Whoopi in a Midwest house … Ellen DeGeneres in a multiplex) … Do a segment on international films! —Timothy M. Gray in Variety

“You can’t change the course of a glacier — you either go with it or get out of the way. —Insider asked to comment on Mr. Gray’s recommendations

“I don’t want to conform to any ideology, to be put into a little corner … Life is absurd but one cannot succumb to the absurdity of it … I truly espouse Aristotle’s definition of virtue: To walk in the middle line!” —GOP Representative Anh Cao of New Orleans, the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to Congress from New Orleans 

Click here on this text to read my New York Post column.