15 January 2013: Nagisa Oshima, aged 80
Winner of Best Director at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival for Empire of Passion, Nagisa Oshima was a Japanese director and screenwriter; born 1932.
"Do I give verbal directions to my crew or my actors? When I put together my team, I choose them according to their own style. They read the screenplay and try their best to be in tune with the demands of the story. It’s very important to me that this harmony, this unity, work itself out without my verbalising anything. What I really want is for everyone to give the best of themselves in complete freedom." – Nagisa Oshima in Criterion interview, 2009.
20 May 2013: Ray Manzarek, aged 74
Founding member of American rock band The Doors, in which he also played keyboard between 1965 and 1973, Raymond Daniel Manzarek was a musician, singer, producer and filmmaker; born 1939.
He is known to have commented about The Doors: "The Doors were successful. It was Jim Morrison as the centre and the figure and the spokesman, the figurehead, but we were all into the same thing. That's why we were a band."
12 June 2013: Fatai Rolling Dollar, aged 82
Member of the Fatai Rolling Dollar band and founder of the African Rhythm Band, Dollar was a Nigerian musician and guitarist who began his music career aged 30; born 1927.
"God almighty is the source of my strength. I don’t smoke weed, I don’t take medicine but I smoke cigarettes. My strength is from God and can you imagine that today, all over the world, I’m the oldest musician that is still playing on the stage?" - Fatai Rolling Dollar in his interview for a Nigerian news portal in 2012.
26 July 2013: JJ Cale, aged 74
Winner of the 2008 Grammy award together with Eric Clapton, JJ Cale was an American singer and songwriter, best known for writing songs that were covered by other musicians such as Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Cash, John Mayer and Bobby Bare; born 1938.
In 2009, JJ Cale said - as written by Aaron Kayce on the musician's website: "I remember when I made my first album [1972's "Naturally"], I was 32 or 33 years old and I thought I was way too old then. When I see myself doing this at 70, I go, ‘What am I doing, I should be layin' down in a hammock'."
30 August 2013: Seamus Heaney, aged 74
Winner of 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright and translator; born 1939.
"The main thing is to write
for the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lust
that imagines its haven like your hands at night
dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast.
You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous.
Take off from here. And don’t be so earnest.”
-Seamus Heaney in "Station Island"
24 October 2013: Manna Dey, aged 94
A Bengali Bollywood playback singer, Prabodh Chandra Dey -- known by his stage name Manna Dey -- who recorded over 4000 songs for the Indian cinema industry; born 1919.
"Whatever the writer wanted to say through the song I have depicted it. Nothing else mattered to me. Who cares for Independence, shindependence? Yes, the way Salil tuned the song, Prem Dhawan wrote it, I sang it. That’s it. And then it was recorded." – Manna Dey in an interview conducted by Manjula Sen, for India's Telegraph, in 2012.
27 October 2013: Lou Reed, aged 71
First vocalist and guitarist of Velvet Underground, before moving to his decades-long solo career, Lewis Allan Reed was an American singer and songwriter; born 1942.
"My God is rock'n'roll. It’s an obscure power that can change your life. The most important part of my religion is to play guitar." – Lou Reed in an interview conducted by Gabriella for NYRock, 1998.
17 November 2013: Doris Lessing, aged 94
Winner of 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, Doris Lessing was a British novelist, playwright and poet; born 1919.
"There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth." ― Doris Lessing in Under My Skin
30 November 2013: Paul Walker, aged 40
American actor Paul Walker was best known for his role as Brian O'Connor in the action movies series "The Fast and the Furious"; born 1973.
"For me, having Brian O'Connor is like having my own little Star Wars franchise." – Paul Walker comments to Louis B. Hobson for Jam!ShowBiz
14 December 2013: Peter O'Toole, aged 81
Winner of three Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Award, Emmy Award and 2003 Academy Honorary Award, Peter O'Toole was British-Irish actor; born 1932.
"If I was to be an actor, I would love to be like Peter O'Toole." Peter O'Tool in Nose Hair Lint Gland for RadioValencia
16 December 2013: Joan Fontaine, aged 96
Winner of a 1941 Academy Award, Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland was a British-American actress; born 1917.
"I hope I'll die on stage at the age of 105, playing Peter Pan." – Joan Fontaine in one of her interviews.
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