Kenneth Branagh

I had a friend who introduced me to a meditation practice which involves a couple of half-hours a day of meditation, where essentially you try to achieve a stillness that allows you to just be there in the moment.

I come from the theatre; my bones are in the theatre. It's as natural as breathing to want to be in the theatre.

Even in the case of a god, audiences - paradoxically - enjoy recognizing the human traits.

How many times do you read about 'the Cinderella story,' the story of the underdog, the story of the ordinary human being, often subjected to cruelty and ignorance and neglect, who somehow triumphs?

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 to one line - a thing maybe that is upsetting or undermining a performance.

The Chinese say, 'It's good to live in interesting times.'

I am a long-time hide-behind-the-sofa-in-the-early-Doctor Who-in-the-1960s fan.

I fondly remember good times working on 'Thor.'

The BAFTA is both absolutely fantastic and sort of meaningless at the same time.

I like to cast actors I admire, one's that are talented. Each one will bring something new to the part. This play has been done thousands of times and now certain characters are too familiar.

I suppose, at 50, you value things in a different way. So you value connections, you value your friendships, you value your health, and you are much more aware of time passing.

For a nanosecond in the pre-Internet pre-digital age, I was a hot young actor, in the sense of popular, and then it passed.