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prof_pangaea[In response to the question, Why is Hamlet so important in Russia?]:
"I think because it is the source of Shakespeare's questions. Why do we live, and do we have to live? Do we live for the light, the truth, or for lies and intrigues? Do we live to say that, 'I, Man, an the most marvelous being in this world?' Or is it that, 'I am different from animals only because I wear a suit'?"
-- Innokenti Smoktunovski
"I personally think that Hamlet is an absurd hero. His first soliloquy suggests to me, when he says that 'My uncle is no more like my father than I am to Hercules,' -- is what he picks out of the air to compare his opposite silhoutte to: Hercules. In other words, implicit in his first soliloquy is, 'I'm no hero, ladies and gentlemen, don't look at me to get everything right. Because it's not me."
-- Ben Kingsley
"Here is a man who is in the middle of life and death, who is concerned about issues, who is very much not cool, and not sympathetic, and not -- but someone who is fiery, and hot, and full of life, and pain, and anger, and anguish."
-- Nicol Williamson
[On Hamlet's wordplay, etc.]:
"It really is like Muhammed Ali. I mean, he's round those bum-a-month guys -- I mean, he dances rings round them."
-- Nicol Williamson
[On the closet scene]:
"It's a domestic scene. Domestic crisis -- of enormous proportions, and somebody in that room is dead that was alive at the beginning of the scene. Nevertheless, it ends with, 'Goodnight, mother', and all that that means -- a valediction to that relationship in its previous form. 'Goodnight' -- goodbye to the old mother, incidentally you, who I've just seen, at last, after all the clutter; I've burnt all the toyboxes, and I can see you at last, goodnight you, whom I've seen for the first time in my life, and you have seen me, you've seen me grow up, because I'm dragging a dead body out of your bedroom. This is me, a man, doing this. Not a child."
-- Ben Kingsley
[On Hamlet's behaviour at the end of the play]:
"I had very much the feeling that here was someone who did want to live, but suspected, as people sometimes say...'I think I'm gonna die.'"
-- Nicol Williamson
"I think because it is the source of Shakespeare's questions. Why do we live, and do we have to live? Do we live for the light, the truth, or for lies and intrigues? Do we live to say that, 'I, Man, an the most marvelous being in this world?' Or is it that, 'I am different from animals only because I wear a suit'?"
-- Innokenti Smoktunovski
"I personally think that Hamlet is an absurd hero. His first soliloquy suggests to me, when he says that 'My uncle is no more like my father than I am to Hercules,' -- is what he picks out of the air to compare his opposite silhoutte to: Hercules. In other words, implicit in his first soliloquy is, 'I'm no hero, ladies and gentlemen, don't look at me to get everything right. Because it's not me."
-- Ben Kingsley
"Here is a man who is in the middle of life and death, who is concerned about issues, who is very much not cool, and not sympathetic, and not -- but someone who is fiery, and hot, and full of life, and pain, and anger, and anguish."
-- Nicol Williamson
[On Hamlet's wordplay, etc.]:
"It really is like Muhammed Ali. I mean, he's round those bum-a-month guys -- I mean, he dances rings round them."
-- Nicol Williamson
[On the closet scene]:
"It's a domestic scene. Domestic crisis -- of enormous proportions, and somebody in that room is dead that was alive at the beginning of the scene. Nevertheless, it ends with, 'Goodnight, mother', and all that that means -- a valediction to that relationship in its previous form. 'Goodnight' -- goodbye to the old mother, incidentally you, who I've just seen, at last, after all the clutter; I've burnt all the toyboxes, and I can see you at last, goodnight you, whom I've seen for the first time in my life, and you have seen me, you've seen me grow up, because I'm dragging a dead body out of your bedroom. This is me, a man, doing this. Not a child."
-- Ben Kingsley
[On Hamlet's behaviour at the end of the play]:
"I had very much the feeling that here was someone who did want to live, but suspected, as people sometimes say...'I think I'm gonna die.'"
-- Nicol Williamson
