“Whenever I play a Shakespearean role I can’t help but think of how many hundreds have played it before me. Whereas, if it was the 1590s and you were in the first cast of a new play by Shakespeare – the first actor to play Hamlet or King Lear – knowing the play would sink or swim on the strength of your performance? Wow. Imagine that. That must have been the golden age.”

“When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours?”