Kenneth Branagh

“Adults are just children who earn money.”

“I think I do have a way of predicting - not always accurately - what is a nerve-wracking day for actors, what may be a difficult scene or a difficult moment, how small - and it may be down t...”

“I suppose that was my first bit of acting, the acquisition of an English accent. It was really just an attempt to be understood.”

“To look out of a car in Scania, you see a painting on the horizontal - one windmill, one tiny farmhouse, acres of beet or grass.”

“I was a big admirer of F.D.R. He saved Britain.”

“In the hands of a great poet, words have ways of affecting us in ways we don't understand.”

“I started being interested in acting when I heard the voices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud and Sir Alec Guinness. I've had the great privilege of working with Sir Derek Jacobi...”

“At the end of every stage performance, the audience all applaud me for doing my job, but I have friends who work in offices who don't get that.”

“I'm just a normal working class boy from Belfast.”

“It's funny to be in rooms where you were originally referred to as 'The Shakespeare Guy' and to suddenly be in the position where you're 'The Blockbuster Guy.' That's a pretty unusual turnab...”

“I do think that, for instance, we've been very lucky to have theatrical careers and be associated with Shakespeare which sometimes gives you a kind of bogus kudos.”

“What you want is the opportunity to work and an audience. Prizes after that are just a great big bonus.”

“The records - what little we know about Shakespeare, including the records of the plays in his playhouse - were often the story of how quickly they came off if they didn't work. They had to...”

“In any given project, there are a few moments where there is the usual disappointment, as it were, when you look in the mirror, and you realize you're not 23 and looking like Brad Pitt.”

“For what it's worth, I enjoy 'Dexter,' 'Modern Family,' 'True Blood' and 'Breaking Bad.' I've enjoyed the wonderful 'The Pacific.'”

“I don't know that the Brits have the monopoly on being organized, but they do have a way of working with which I'm familiar. It's not necessarily the best way, but it's a way.”

“I'm by no means an opera buff.”

“I'm very conscious of the fact the directing career has taken some odd turns. Maybe there's enough bulk where I'm now pigeonholed in the 'eclectic box.'”

“Mozart had a tremendously fertile and creative ear for a catchy tune.”

“The best actors, I think, have a childlike quality. They have a sort of an ability to lose themselves. There's still some silliness.”