Quotes About Shakespeare

Shakespeare's always on my dance card if it can be.

Shakespeare was completely fictionalising the people who were then the great celebrities of English.

The magic word 'Shakespeare' always freezes you in your chair.

I'm a natural clown, I suppose, in writing, and one has to accept that; I can't do anything about it. I have written one or two novels which are not specifically funny. I wrote a study of Shakespeare which was not intended to be funny, but some people regard it as such.

When I first started acting, and we would all sit down and talk about Shakespeare and how great it was. I thought well, I suppose it is.

I didn't particularly aim to be a Shakespeare actor, but I suppose I had a certain gift or it; I certainly got offered lots of it. I liked Complicite and Shared Experience and Kick Theatre, and all the small theatre companies that were getting going. I wanted to be like that, making original theatre.

To realize life in the abstract as noble or beautiful or humane, to set it forth so with radiance upon it, that is civilization in the arts. Shakespeare is the chief modern example of this supreme faculty of mankind.

Shakespeare very rarely makes the least attempt to surprise by his catastrophes. They are felt to be inevitable, though the precise way in which they will be brought about is not, of course, foreseen.

People constantly express surprise that Americans are so hot for Shakespeare. But Britain's culture is American culture, too.

There is some mysterious thing that goes on whereby, in the process of playing Shakespeare continuously, actors are surprised by the way the language actually acts on them.

I find Shakespeare surprisingly sexual. A lot of his language - a lot - has that kind of sexual innuendo that is at once everywhere but also kinda lost because we have our own innuendo now, our own language.

A very bad murderer," I said. "Like Shakespeare's Second Murderer in that scene in King Richard III. The fellow that had certain dregs of conscience, but still wanted the money, and in the end didn't do the job at all because he couldn't make up his mind. Such murderers are very dangerous. They have to be removed.

This talk of laughing all the way to the bank reminds me of a delightful line from Shakespeare: The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. 2 Henry VI

The Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, Melville—the masters of the King's English all promoted the easy imagery of black as vile and white as purity and thereby fed a deep and potent racism that well served all who would enslave the black men of Africa.

It is difficult to restrain admirers of Shakespeare once they have begun to speak of him.

Buchan had discovered a wealth of small tidbits. He now knew her first name - Tatiana. Like Shakespeare's fairy queen. Be she but little, she is fierce.

Men of humor are always in some degree men of genius; wits are rarely so, although a man of genius may, amongst other gifts, possess wit, as Shakespeare.

France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits the tread of a man's foot.

O Judgment ! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason !

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, And hold-fast is the only dog.

My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.

They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die. I'll wink and couch; no man their works must eye.

James Agate, a great critic of the day, advised me that the way to learn your job properly was to learn Shakespeare, so I went to Stratford. It really sorts out the men from the boys.

Shakespeare is a great psychologist, and whatever can be known of the heart of man may be found in his plays.