[on Orson Welles's radio work]: 'First Person Singular' was the singularly apt title of Orson Welles's first radio series. Although he signed off each of his programs with the words, "Obediently Yours", Welles was about as self-effacing as a drunken butler.

[on "Citizen Kane"]: Kane" is ostensibly an attempt to resolve the complexities of a legendary man's character - it unfolds as a search for the meaning of his dying word, 'Rosebud' - but it is actually a piece of prestidigitation which makes the character disappear behind a flourish of artifice and mystery.