Don’t stand up when you can sit down and don’t sit down when you can lie down.

I think the best actors are the most generous, the kindest, the greatest people and at their worst they are vain, greedy and insecure.

I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be.

There are some amazing stories from all over this country, where people's work and contribution has been acknowledged. To be part of that is an absolutely fantastic feeling.

If it's good art, it's good.

Aging is the diminishing of early fearlessness.

I don't think Hamlet is mad, nor is he predisposed to be a gloomy or tragic figure.