Quotes from Jonathan Pryce

It was easy for me to play someone with a massive ego. It's actually really fun to have the freedom to be that person.

One time, I had to do Edgar in 'King Lear' and Owl in 'Winnie the Pooh' on the same day.

When you sing on stage, the songs are part of the narrative, but in 'Unconditional Love,' it was just singing for singing's sake. It was playing at being pop star. As a young boy growing up in North Wales, that was my fantasy.

I live a very ordinary life. The rare awards ceremonies I go to are quite fun, because I can enjoy the irony of one minute walking to the tube, and the next being driven along the same stretch of road in a limo.

Oddly enough, I'm not religious but I'm also very fond of St Peter's in Rome. When I'm there, I always know there's a good meal not far away.

When you play a character, you commit yourself to their beliefs.

'Macbeth' sags in act four - the England scene with Malcolm and Macduff just doesn't work theatrically. But with 'Hamlet,' although the play is so long, Shakespeare manages to sustain the arc.

I'd rather be Welsh than English, that's for sure.

I know writers, and they seem to be the most disgruntled part of the art world.

It took a while to decide I wanted to do Hamlet. It wasn't that I was daunted - I'd been acting professionally since my mid-20s and had some pretty big Shakespearean roles under my belt by that stage, at 32: Petruchio in 'The Taming of the Shrew,' Edgar in 'King Lear,' Antony, Richard III. But when it came to Hamlet, I hesitated.

People sometimes ask me why I did this or that project. I say, 'Well, they asked me.'

I grew up in the 1950s at the beginning of rock n' roll, and would strum a tennis racket in front of the mirror.

You can't punish the middle classes for going to drama school - you need to punish the education system and the associative governments for devaluing the arts.

I've never had therapy. Maybe the work is the therapy.

Hamlet' is a real ensemble piece: you have to realise that he's just one part of the story.

When I was young, I used to be very frightened of getting older and of death. Now, I'm more resigned to the inevitability.

I treasure my friends but not my possessions.

It was very amusing to do 'GI Joe: Retaliation' scenes with Bruce Willis, who spends months rewriting his dialogue and then turns up and doesn't say it. Part of the time, he doesn't say anything, but mumbles and mutters.

I know people whose entire lives are ruined by fame. If you make yourself exclusive, people want to break that down, but if you go about doing your shopping, no one bugs you.

I can tell stories to other actors about the level of aggression on stage in the '70s between actors - it was unbelievable.

When I left school, I wanted to be an artist, specifically a painter.

Actors, when they're older, still get a chance to let off steam or something and work things off on stage.

I made a sofa that is constantly being updated the more people sit on it, or sit through it, or don't sit on it because it's so uncomfortable.

I have just enough public appreciation to make me happy.