Alan Cumming Quotes

Macbeth was the first play I ever read.

Well, as a kid I did not get Shakespeare. I just never understood it.

Shakespeare's stories are still very strong. He structured fantastic stories about things that were fundamental to the human being and psyche.

I claim Dickens as a mentor. He's my teacher. He's one of my driving forces.

I first came across the script for 'Macbeth' between the ages of 11 and 12; it was the first book that shook my life. Because I did not yet understand that I could simply purchase it in a bookstore, I copied much of it by hand and took it home. My childhood imagination pushed me to feel like a co-author of the play.

I believe that nothing comes of nothing, even in Shakespeare. I wanted to know where he got the matter he was working with and what he did with that matter.

My mother taught Shakespeare and used to act.

'Macbeth,' I am ambivalent about. I don't like that play, in fact.

Shakespeare is still Shakespeare because story rules.

I owe the little formal education I got to my drama teacher, Mr. Pickett, who got us to read Shakespeare, Moliere, and other classics.

You have to learn the language of Hamlet.

I read Shakespeare when I was 14 because it's what we were taught.

I went to drama school for three years, and the whole thing there is that hopefully you are introduced to a man called William Shakespeare who is the greatest of all time of all storytelling.

Shakespeare is definitely my first love.

I like Shakespeare. I like some of his work a lot.

I had great English teachers in high school who first piqued my interest in Shakespeare. Each year, we read a different play - 'Othello,' 'Julius Caesar,' 'Macbeth,' 'Hamlet' - and I was the nerd in class who would memorize soliloquies just for the fun of it.

Before acting, I was always attracted to words, to literature - be they the words of Williams, Arthur Miller, Shakespeare or Moliere.

America's future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.

My parents are the reason I wanted to make Shakespeare available to ordinary people.

I've always wanted to give 'Hamlet' a shot. It's the big one, you know. I haven't done Shakespeare professionally, so I think it would be terrifying.

I grew up around books - my grandmother's house, where I lived as a small child, was full of books. My father was a history teacher, and he loved the Russian novels. There were always books around.

I apologize for being obvious, but every time I watch the curtain come down on even a halfway decent production of a Shakespeare play I feel a little sorrowful that I'll never know the man, or any man of such warm intelligence.

I've always wanted to do a Shakespeare play.

Shakespeare is rich and beautiful, and it can be an amazing experience to read and to watch and to work on.

Both my parents loved words. That was the big deal in our house.