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.

I actually wanted to be a writer long before I wanted to be an actor.

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

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

I've come to this conclusion: What makes a great actor is great need. A huge need of acting.

Very often my weekends are spent performing on Saturday, on stage in the afternoon and again in the evening.

Shakespeare wrote all there is that we need to know about dementia in 'King Lear.