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'd like to direct more operas.

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

I went to Queen's University Belfast and stayed nine months, then I ran away to be an actor.

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

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

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.