I don't feel I'm a compulsive person. I multitask. I'm really well-organised, and I have lots of people to help me.

Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.

I like working on things that are very different and that involve different disguises.

For example, Americans seem reluctant to take on Shakespeare because you don't think you're very good at it - which is rubbish. You're missing out here.

I started to itch to do a play again and 'Macbeth' came to the surface in my mind. I never thought I would do it in a conventional way. A sweaty Macbeth with blood on his arms coming in fresh from the battle doesn't interest me.

If you are a cabaret artist and you are mostly singing other people's songs, you're asking them to rethink a song, listen to it in a different way. The most impact you can have while asking them to re-listen to a song is if it's a song they know very well.

There are some days when you don't feel like being Alan Cumming.