Kenneth Branagh

“A lot of the films I've done have links to other movies that I've directed in the past.”

“I would say my voice is actor-neutral.”

“There are some amazing stories from all over this country, where people's work and contribution has been acknowledged. To be part of that is an absolutely fantastic feeling.”

“My dad, for the first 15 years of my career, on every visit he made to a play or a film set, would find the oldest person on set and say, 'Do you think my son has a future?'”

“I loved 'Kundun.'”

“The idea of accumulating ambitions or achievements didn't get much further than wanting to do the next exciting thing. I really haven't set out with any list of achievements.”

“I went to a comprehensive school and didn't go to university.”

“I had a friend who introduced me to a meditation practice which involves a couple of half-hours a day of meditation, where essentially you try to achieve a stillness that allows you to just be there in the moment.”

“The elasticity of Shakespeare is extraordinary.”

“It's funny to be in rooms where you were originally referred to as 'The Shakespeare Guy' and to suddenly be in the position where you're 'The Blockbuster Guy.' That's a pretty unusual turnabout, I must say.”

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

“For a nanosecond in the pre-Internet pre-digital age, I was a hot young actor, in the sense of popular, and then it passed.”

“I'm very conscious of the fact the directing career has taken some odd turns. Maybe there's enough bulk where I'm now pigeonholed in the 'eclectic box.'”

“If it's good art, it's good.”

“What happens is that with difficult processes on a film, they get very intensely compressed because a clock is ticking.”

“Life is surreal and beautiful.”

“I was studying at the Royal Academy of Arts, and I was playing the role of Dr. Ivan Chebutikin in Chekov's 'Three Sisters.' I was about 50 years too young for the part.”

“I liked the fact that 'My Week With Marilyn' wasn't a biopic.”

“My experience of great storytelling, working with classics, is just finding a way to present it simply but let the story do its own work, or be an invite to the audience's imagination.”

“Probably 90 percent of the stuff I make has inevitably been done before... Whether it's playing Hamlet, which has been on the go for 400 years, or pieces from the cinematic world that also have been essayed before, I feel released by that.”