You could say Shakespeare is so extraordinary precisely because he was so ordinary. He had all the usual anxieties and understandings of what it is to have children, lose children, get married, struggle to make a living and so on.

I don't practise any religion but I am deeply interested in the answers that mankind has come up with to explain the human situation.

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

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

Having caught a glimpse of what I might be able to do with my talent, I feel a tremendous obligation to try to fulfill it.

Shakespeare speaks for the human heart but Dickens speaks for the social man and for injustices.

Childhood didn't have a big influence on me, really - in fact I spent most of it plotting how to escape.