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

I love storytelling and I love just relating directly to an audience. That's why we do theatre, it's because we love contact with the audience. We love the fact that the audience will change us. The way the audience responds makes us change our performance.

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.

I'd like to direct more operas.

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

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

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.