Quotes from Roger Rees

I was at a pretty rough school, and the only thing I was good at was art.

Mostly, theater becomes blander and blander as everyone wants the same thing they saw before. The good plays are the ones that don't allow you to do that.

'Nicholas Nickleby' is 800 pages long. At one time, the theater production was 15 hours long. So it's an interesting process, about what you leave out and what you select.

It doesn't seem Shakespeare works if you turn him into a religion.

I've been with Shakespeare all my life.

Even Shakespeare gives you a scene off.

Now, when I talk about Shakespeare, I can't talk too much about Gielgud or Olivier. Because nobody knows who I'm talking about.

I don't think perfection is possible. I think you can attempt to reach perfection, but I don't think it's a possible thing. I think perfection is a moving point, and we spend our artistic lives chasing it.

I love to see people blossom.

History is with us until we learn from the suffering of the past.

Nothing in the world in perfect. Even a still photograph.

I usually played comic lovers or losers - weak, ineffectual men.

I'm astonished to say, but people are really pleased to hear what happened to me, the way I got a little bit more confident, the people I've met, and the things I didn't know.

The classical actor in England makes roughly the equivalent of a bus driver.

'Waiting for Godot,' when it first came out in 1950, was a very different sort of play to the plays that were in the West End at that time in London, because most of those plays were what we call drawing-room comedies.

I was really serious about painting, so I could never be a Sunday painter. You can't just switch it on and off.

The sense of popularity in an actor is essential.

I directed Bebe Neuwirth in 'Here Lies Jenny' at the Post Street Theatre. I was gobsmacked - the audiences were extremely knowledgeable, affectionate, interested, and not cynical.

Well-written plays deserve to be learned from and understood properly, both by actors and audiences alike, and Rattigan's very human characters help us do that.

We did a black 'Julius Caesar' in which the predominant accent was Caribbean. This offends many people, you know. I also had a Chinese Marc Anthony. I also managed - this caused a great shock - I also got some white guys in it as well!

If you take away a lot of the pretension and grandness from Shakespeare, a true poeticism is revealed.

Daring to love someone is something we all do.

I joined the Royal Shakespeare Co. with no experience whatsoever - I'd never been to a drama school or anything. But I was strong and could lift things, I could move scenery about.

I think like an actor when I'm acting, and I think like a director when I'm directing.