Kenneth Branagh quotes

Kenneth Branagh is an Irish actor, director, and screenwriter renowned for his adaptations of Shakespeare's works. His talents have brought him acclaim both on stage and in cinema, with performances and films spanning genres and generations. He continues to be a prominent figure in contemporary theater and film. Here are 40 of his quotes:

Friendship is one of the most tangible things in a world which offers fewer and fewer supports. (Kenneth Branagh)
It's very strange that the people you love are often the people you're most cruel to. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
My definition of success is control. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
I don't think Hamlet is mad, nor is he predisposed to be a gloomy or tragic figure. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
So many plays with magic in them that would be a terrific invitation to an imaginative animation team. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
In the hands of a great poet, words have ways of affecting us in ways we don't understand. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don't get so worked up about things. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
We're self obsessed and mad and stupid - not that other people can't be the same way - but the extremes are kind of honest in some mad way. Anyway, I like them. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
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. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
I think the best actors are the most generous, the kindest, the greatest people and at their worst they are vain, greedy and insecure. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
Music and language are a vital element. We, as actors and directors, offer it to people who want to experience it. Sometimes the actual meaning is less important than the words themselves. (Kenneth Branagh)
It's quite hard for people to just accept that they're very contradictory. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
The elasticity of Shakespeare is extraordinary. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
I only really cast people who are desperate to be in it - who were dying to be in it, whose talent I believed in and were dead ready to do the work that was necessary. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
If it's good art, it's good. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
I certainly have been guilty of trying to sweep things under the carpet. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
The best actors, I think, have a childlike quality. They have a sort of an ability to lose themselves. There's still some silliness. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
Life is surreal and beautiful. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
Life is about making plans from which you deviate, almost always. If you are lucky, you do come up with a plan. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
The long version of the play is actually an easier version to follow. In all of the cut versions the intense speeches are cut too close together for the audience and the actors. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
If you've done a brilliant version it becomes something else. (Kenneth Branagh)
One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
The glory of 70mm is the sharpness of the image it offers. View quote
Kenneth Branagh
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. View quote
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. View quote
Kenneth Branagh