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There was a time when people liked to take Shakespeare and twist him around to make whatever social or political statement they wanted to make.

Most people, even among those who know Shakespeare well and come into real contact with his mind, are inclined to isolate and exaggerate some one aspect of the tragic fact.

I'm constantly intimidated by Shakespeare's work. Trying to decipher what he's saying and holding on to that thought - not just as an actor, but as a human being - is a rigour.

Shakespeare was a dramatist of note who lived by writing things to quote.

Shakespeare pulls on us and demands the best of us. You never successfully wrestle one of his plays to the ground and say, 'See? That's It!'

Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.

Well, as a kid I did not get Shakespeare. I just never understood it.

I believe that it is a whole lifetime of work on Shakespeare's part that enabled him to do what he did. But the question is how you can explain this whole lifetime in such a way to make it accessible and available to us, to me.

First of all, Shakespeare is about pleasure and interest. He was from the first moment he actually wrote something for the stage, and he remains so.

Shakespeare teaches you how to act. You come out of this process as a better actor. It's just the nature of the words he writes.