Explore Quotes by Kenneth Branagh

I did not expect to be allowed to be an actor, to be allowed to eventually direct things.

My dad, for the first 15 years of my career, on every visit he made to a play or a film set, would find the oldest person on set and say, 'Do you think my son has a future?'

I don't find myself so exercised by a desperation to be new.

If you've done a brilliant version it becomes something else.

It's quite hard for people to just accept that they're very contradictory.

I think that short films often contain an originality, a creative freedom, an energy and an invention that is inspiring and entertaining. I think they are, as Shakespeare put it, a good deed in a naughty world.

Life is about making plans from which you deviate, almost always. If you are lucky, you do come up with a plan.

I fondly remember good times working on 'Thor.'

To look out of a car in Scania, you see a painting on the horizontal - one windmill, one tiny farmhouse, acres of beet or grass.

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 am very much looking forward to new adventures - including, I hope, Broadway - sooner rather than later.

I live in the English countryside, so I'm surrounded by magpies.

I'm basically quite a cheerful person.

I did not make this a long film for its own sake. I wanted to make an entertaining film and offer it out there for those who want to see it. If word of mouth suggests there is an audience out there, hopefully their cinema will show it.

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 think A Midsummer Night's Dream would be terrific because of the transformations that occur. Or The Tempest, things like that. Extraordinary larger than life or supernatural element.

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.

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.

Mozart had a tremendously fertile and creative ear for a catchy tune.

The glory of 70mm is the sharpness of the image it offers.

A brother who is unhappy is a dangerous relative to have.