I'd like to direct more operas.

To enter a theatre for a performance is to be inducted into a magical space, to be ushered into the sacred arena of the imagination.

The elderly are all someone's flesh and blood and we cannot just shut them in a cupboard and hand over the responsibility for taking care of them to the state.

To live another person's life is quite a weird thing.

When the BBC decided to bring Doctor Who back as a feature film a few years ago, one national newspaper ran a poll to ask its readers who should be the new Doctor, and I topped it.

Childhood didn't have a big influence on me, really - in fact I spent most of it plotting how to escape.

I've come to this conclusion: What makes a great actor is great need. A huge need of acting.

My mother wanted me to be a teacher. She had this vision of me walking across the quadrangle in an Oxford college wearing my academic gown.

I am never bored, never short of anything to do and I don't even ever feel lonely. I am quite gregarious and I get out and about a lot, but sometimes it is just wonderful to be on your own.

Having caught a glimpse of what I might be able to do with my talent, I feel a tremendous obligation to try to fulfill it.

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

Yes, they are carnal, both of them, love and death, and therein lies their terror and their great magic!

The sinner is saved by the Saviour.

Don't worry about what you're writing or whether it's good or even whether it makes sense.

I feel like I still am struggling in a lot of different ways. I still have to fight for certain things. Certain jobs. At least I'm working and I'm thankful for that.

I think I'm still a little too intense for my own good sometimes.

Colour as perceived by us is a function of three independent variables at least three are I think sufficient, but time will show if I thrive.

The boys think they can all be athletes, and the girls think they can all be singers. That's the way to fame and success. ...as a group blacks must give up their illusions.

You have to have a very holler-y sensibility. So they [the audience] know there's something worth listening to.

I'm not familiar precisely with what I said, but I'll stand by what I said, whatever it was.

Strange, when you ask anyone's advice you see yourself what is right.