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Doing Shakespeare certainly makes you a better actor.

I'll bet Shakespeare compromised himself a lot; anybody who's in the entertainment industry does to some extent.

Maybe they say they do but I don't think many actors really enjoy trying to do a Shakespearean play.

I had always wanted to retell a Shakespeare play. It was an ambition from college days. But in order to be able to do it... the circumstances in my life didn't come together for a long time.

It wasn't until I went to college that I met the theatre people and began to admire them because they were learning a trade that was guaranteed to make money!

I think in any form of acting, you're always well served if you've done theater.

When I first started acting, and we would all sit down and talk about Shakespeare and how great it was. I thought well, I suppose it is.

If you grow up in Britain, you just do Shakespeare. If you go and work in a theater once or twice or three times in your life, you're going to end up doing a Shakespeare, because he's obviously such a brilliant, brilliant writer.

With Shakespeare, because you invest so much time in working on material, it always sort of stays with you to some degree.

The economics of being a playwright are abysmal. I like to think of the work I do out in Hollywood as a way to actually make a life in the theater easier.