Joel Kinnaman Quotes

I directed a piece of theater in Italy. We took nine fables from the town and we created a play.

Any scene in Shakespeare can be vulgarised almost out of recognition with the wish to have a modern concept.

Translation is an act of recreation.

In an ever-changing technological landscape, where today's platforms are not tomorrow's platforms, the key seems to be that any one of these spaces can use a dose of humanity and art and culture.

The most powerful words in English are 'Tell me a story,' words that are intimately related to the complexity of history, the origins of language, the continuity of the species, the taproot of our humanity, our singularity, and art itself.

If people aren't creating literature, there would be nothing for people to criticize.

Shakespeare is renewed each time you see it or read it. I've seen 'Midsummer Night's Dream' so many times, and each time it's a little different, or a different line leaps out at me. It's like re-reading a good book over and over, always noticing something you hadn't seen the time before - and that's rare.

I think there is no world without theatre.

All 'Hamlets' are different, and it's the most overwritten play ever written.

Acting is not rocket science, but it is an art form. What you are doing is illuminating humanity. Or not.

One of my favourite pieces is 'Antony and Cleopatra' - I'd love to be in that. Or an alternative version of 'Romeo & Juliet' where I get to play Mercutio, something like that.

It doesn't seem Shakespeare works if you turn him into a religion.

I have no problems with remakes, and I think it's interesting. I mean, coming from the theater, we've been remaking 'Hamlet' for a hundred years, so it's no problem to me at all. A good story can be told in many different ways in different places; I just think it's interesting.

Art is what defines us, what makes us human.

One day, music will take its rightful place as the true religion of Mankind.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really. And imaginations prosper in different circumstances. And it's being able - I can't tell you how one does, but one tries to read those circumstances correctly.

I became an actress because I discovered the world of the imagination when I was about 14 or so and the concept that you could engage in this amazing world of storytelling. I saw a production of Hamlet, and I didn't know Hamlet died in the end.

I believe that the arts make indispensable contributions to our understanding.

Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of a human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed

When Xena finished I just really wanted to work with Shakespeare's material.

It's not all about acting. It's about giving an art of entertainment to humanity.

I'm sure civilizations will still evolve through play, or rather as play, since that seems to be a fundamental mechanism of our humanity.

Great stories don't often make great movies. Its' a crafted art form.

You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear thorough the search.

The arts and humanities define who we are as a people. That is their power -- to remind us of what we each have to offer, and what we all have in common. To help us understand our history and imagine our future. To give us hope in the moments of struggle and to bring us together when nothing else will.