Sam Wanamaker

“Shakespeare belongs to the whole of mankind, not just one country.”

“What would the world say if the Globe, now that it has at last been found, is not excavated?”

“The Globe will become an automatic sight like the Tower of London and St. Paul's.”

“England is a mecca for actors who want to do the classics.”

“I became a producer because of projects I wanted to pursue and develop as a director or actor.”

“I think the Schwontkowski banner will help publicize the construction of the new Globe and probably will also help fundraising.”

“We will get back to the earlier, instinctive and less inhibited nature of theatre. Today, spectators are passive, but Elizabethan, Greek and Roma; theatre was interactive.”

“In my teens, I saw a terrible production of 'Die Walkuere.' To a person of 15, it was just awful, and it put me off for many years. Eventually I became an opera-goer, if not an opera buff.”

“I mean, the Globe is the most famous theater in the western world. The British have absolutely neglected it. It's an embarrassment to them that they haven't done anything about it.”

“Now I do perhaps three films or 17 TV movies a year.”

“Two planeloads of California actors and directors flew to Washington in support of the Hollywood Ten, and some of us, like John Garfield, came down from New York. There's a very famous Life magazine cover with Bogart and Bacall sitting in the hearing room. I was in between them.”

“Through the years, I had became involved with social and political issues, such as racial discrimination.”

“Of course, the Globe will be an international educational center as well as a theater.”

“The British are much more cynical and regard the idea of a Globe reconstruction as an Elizabethan Disneyland. But the Americans have a real hunger for what they see as their history, their culture and their Shakespeare.”

“There are more movie stars in the lobby of the Aquadulce than there are in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel.”

“Frankly, the British always looked at this as a dumpy industrial area, but this was where Shakespeare lived and wrote and performed some of his greatest works.”

“I foresee the Globe attracting scholars from all over the world.”

“My middle daughter is with the Royal Shakespeare Company and was on Broadway several years ago.”

“Shakespeare is, after all, Britain's greatest poet and dramatist.”

“I've always been in institutional theater.”