Actors are the best and the worst of people. They’re like kids. When they’re good, they’re very very good. When they’re bad they’re very very naughty. – Kenneth Branagh
I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That’s why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I’m part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be. – 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. – Kenneth Branagh
It’s very strange that the people you love are often the people you’re most cruel to. – Kenneth Branagh
The idea of accumulating ambitions or achievements didn’t get much further than wanting to do the next exciting thing. I really haven’t set out with any list of achievements. – Kenneth Branagh
What happens is that with difficult processes on a film, they get very intensely compressed because a clock is ticking. – Kenneth Branagh
In the case of ‘Jack Ryan,’ it was a huge collaboration, and I enjoyed it very much, and most of all, I want the audience to enjoy it, too. I want them to feel immersed in this world. – Kenneth Branagh
I come from the theatre; my bones are in the theatre. It’s as natural as breathing to want to be in the theatre. – Kenneth Branagh
I saw Derek Jacobi play Hamlet when I was 17, and he directed me as Hamlet when I was 27, and I directed him as Claudius in ‘Hamlet’ when I was 35, and I’m hoping we meet again in some other production of Hamlet before we both toddle off. – Kenneth Branagh