Quotes from Roger Rees

They said my voice was terrible, nervous, and spotty and that I must go away and learn how to use it properly. I must admit I was rather agape, since I had never thought about making my voice better.

My first acquaintance with 'Peter Pan' was back when I lived in South London. I was at art school, and I needed to earn money, so I got a job as a stagehand at the Wimbledon Theatre, and 'Peter Pan' was on tour there with Donald Sinden, who was playing Captain Hook.

Anything I do is as theatrical as I can get it.

After I left the R.S.C., I did a musical, 'Masquerade,' where I played a rabbit. I was the lead.

Exercising choice is a good thing.

I like to do really good things. But 'good' - witness Charles Dickens - doesn't mean 'not popular.'

'Merry Wives of Windsor' is a wonderful machine. It's one of the great farces, and it's astonishing to remember that this is written by the same man who wrote 'Hamlet,' 'The Taming of the Shrew' or 'Cymbeline.' It's so similar, and yet the form is so different.

I want to play King Lear, Macbeth, Benedict, Coriolanus. I wouldn't mind doing Hamlet again. Well, I'm a little old. Perhaps I can rub Vaseline on the audience's eyes.

The hard thing is making sure you work with wonderful people and that you get something out of it so that you can get better as an actor.

I've learned from the greatest people, and I've got wonderful things to pass on.

I love to argue and share bright ideas in a rehearsal room, and when you live with somebody who is working on the same show, the delight can go on all evening!

In Tom Cone's work nothing is easy.

You got paid on Friday, go for a late-night poker game, and have no money on Saturday. But the RSC took your rent out of the paycheck, so at least you had a place to sleep.

I thought acting was just going on and remembering all of one's lines.

Television is an important part of how we communicate.

People very often say to actors that they admire their careers, and I rather think that what's implied by that is that we have a choice in the matter. When really, most actors, me included, do whatever comes along next.

No lens is quick enough to track the movement of the human body. The molecules are always moving.

The loser, the fool, is embraced in England because there is a recognition of silliness there that allows a person to keep his ambitions and desires at a certain distance. Just being in the race is enough.

'Nicholas Nickleby' was the best example, where 43 people could make an audience of 1,500 look at a fingernail at any given moment. It was so controlled, and yet it was a group of disparate individuals. It was a happy, constructive time, and it seemed to be an active discussion of what makes the theater work.

Rattigan wrote some very good plays.

I got out of this school and went to Camberwell College of Arts, a terribly prestigious thing to do. I was there to be a painter. And I sketched so well that, a year later, I was sent to Slade School of Fine Art, one of the great art schools.

There's something very fine and lucid and rich in this tradition of the English actor.

That's been the tragedy of my life, actually. I've always looked younger than I am.

If Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be doing sitcoms.