Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.

Who wanted to creep along in comfort when there was one chance in a thousand of flying?

The characters that I create are parts of myself and I send them on little missions to find out what I don’t know yet.

I'm always aware that I risk being taken for a neurasthenic prima donna when I explain to someone who wants 'just a little' of my time that five minutes of the wrong kind of distraction can ruin a working day.

I confess, right at the start, to the doubts - and sometimes outright dreads - that go with me as I climb the stairs to my study in the morning, coffee mug in hand: I have to admit to the habitual apprehension mixed with a sort of reverence, as I light the incense . . . and wonder: what is going to happen today? Will anything happen? Will the angel come today?

The race of children possesses magically sagacious powers.

Actors between plays are like ghosts looking for bodies to inhabit.