43 Quotes by Samuel West

It would've been hard to do something else, to as it were, run away from the circus and become an accountant.

My one remaining professional ambition is to read the shipping forecast. I live in hope.

Of course 'Hamlet' is a debate about the nature and morality of revenge and whether it is right to do something to assuage your angry feelings.

I mean I think children love the idea that there are different viewpoints and different words for things and different worlds. And the more that they pretend to be other people, the harder it is for them to hate them and misunderstand them when they grow up.

Books don't exist unless you read them. And it's a two way process - you write the book as you read it and you fill in the gaps. You discover it and you put the marks together and without you doing it they're just marks.

When you are in a bad production there are two things you can do. You can do your best or you can leave. I chose to do the third thing which was sulk.

I am a coward, basically, but one of the things about acting is that you are always putting yourself through yet another test.

I really do think the things that make our society what it is are under threat. It should be about everyone having the potential to be what they're going to be.

If you play a part that's been done before, on stage for instance, you feel like you're carrying a torch and staggering under the weight of it for a bit and then passing it on to somebody else.