To enter a theatre for a performance is to be inducted into a magical space, to be ushered into the sacred arena of the imagination.

When children have grieving parents it's also common for them to feel an obligation to cheer them up and make them happy.

I would say critically of myself that I am somebody without secrets. Sometimes acting depends on you having a secret. I don't think I've ever had that.

There is something essentially sanguine about me, which I am inclined to attribute to the fact that I was born by caesarean section. It must affect you.

Everything that we have gone through, are going through, and will go through is there in Shakespeare. It is all of human life.

I hated Sundays when I was growing up in Streatham, south London. Everything closed down and stopped.

Many actors have protested about mobile phones going off in theatres, but the real menace now is people texting during a show. It may only disturb a few people around them, but for me, as an actor, when I spot them answering their emails, I am outraged.