For a while, I dallied with the idea of the law - I didn't really know what it was, but I thought it sounded sensible. And as a child, I wanted to be a goalkeeper. Or a butcher.

I think having a dispassionate eye is a good way of making art. When you don't know the structures of a place, you are unencumbered.

If you look at a painting that you love by one of the great masters, every time you go back to it, you see something different - a different attitude or brushstroke. 'Hamlet' is like an entire gallery of old masters.

However democratic and egalitarian we kid ourselves into thinking society might be, I think that sense of entitlement operates as basically and viciously as it always did.

Both Othello and Iago seem a bit cracked. If you spend 15 years being responsible for death and destruction, that sense of suppressed horror is strong.

I get antsy if a year goes by without doing a play. I don't go to the gym, so this is my way of trying to live longer.