Money talks

“I mean, if my smile was insured, there would be someone at my house on a nightly basis saying, ‘You need to floss longer’.’’ Julia Roberts (pictured) denies the story that her smile is insured for $30m, in an interview with The New York Times

“Inflation was a sleeping dragon; this dragon has now awoken.” Otmar Issing, one of the architects of the euro, quoted in the Financial Times

“One day in 1985… my manager put a piece of paper in front of me and told me to sign. I did, without looking, like any self-respecting artiste. Fortunately it was not a wildly inequitable contract, but a pension scheme.” Pop star turned priest Richard Coles, quoted in The Sunday Times

“The Zombies were sheltered from the total lack of touring income during the pandemic by the use of our songs in films and commercials… It’s amazing how often these Zombie tunes, recorded from 1964-1967, find a place in modern films, netting me a respectable six-figure sum last year”. Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone, quoted in The Sunday Times

“I’ve got one brother and for pocket money we had sixpence a week, which bought a great deal. My parents didn’t offer advice about money. Anything I knew about money I got from seeing what they did with it.” Artist David Gentleman, quoted in The Telegraph

“I don’t think people realise how difficult it is to be that kind of artist who can quit their job and spend months on end in a studio… It’s much more common to be living this weird double life; I did tours with Kylie Minogue [then] worked a random cafe job.” Musician Hatchie, quoted in The Guardian