Simon Cowell on 1D

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I met them as solo artists to begin with. Each of them individually had very good auditions [for The X Factor]. We had high hopes for two or three of them in particular, and then it all kind of fell apart at one of the latter stages. Interestingly, when they left, I had a bad feeling that maybe we shouldn't have lost them and maybe there was something else we should do with them. And this is when the idea came about that we should see if they could work as a group. We invited these five guys back. They were the only five we cared about. The minute they stood there for the first time together—it was a weird feeling. They just looked like a group at that point. I had a good feeling, but then obviously we had about a five-week wait where they had to work together. They had to come back for another section of the show where they performed together as a group for the first time. I was concerned whether five weeks was long enough, but they came back five weeks later and were absolutely sensational.” —Simon Cowell on the formation of One Direction, in Rolling Stone. (4/10a)