The long version of the play is actually an easier version to follow. In all of the cut versions the intense speeches are cut too close together for the audience and the actors.

Friendship is one of the most tangible things in a world which offers fewer and fewer supports.

One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality.

Hamlet and Victor Frankenstein are each obsessed with death. Hamlet's whole story is a philosophical preparation for death; Victor's is an intellectual refusal to accept it.

It doesn't mean old or younger. I've learned a lot from people much younger than me as well as people much older than me. So I think it's about honesty and generosity.

We're self obsessed and mad and stupid - not that other people can't be the same way - but the extremes are kind of honest in some mad way. Anyway, I like them.

My definition of success is control.

I come from the theatre, my bones are in the theatre; it’s as natural as breathing to want to be in the theatre

The glory of 70mm is the sharpness of the image it offers.

There is some mysterious thing that goes on whereby, in the process of playing Shakespeare continuously, actors are surprised by the way the language actually acts on them.

I don't think Hamlet is mad, nor is he predisposed to be a gloomy or tragic figure.

The worst time to quit on yourself is when things are getting hard in your life.

A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny.

The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.

In a career playing heroes, I learned a little about the real thing. A hero stands up-for himself, for herself, but most importantly for others.

The man who has his ideals, no matter how thoroughly he may be persuaded to desert them, survives well only so long as he is true to those ideals.

I dont ever wear makeup. I steam my face. I put hot water to open pores and cold water to close them.

He [Caesar] loved the treason, but hated the traitor.

Link yourself to your potential, not to your past.

I never think I am successful. If I am successful, then I should be retired. If I am not retired, then that means I should still be working hard, keeping the company running.

Courage is the greatest virtue because it guarantees all the rest.