Shakespeare Play Quotes

• If I was white I would have been like John Wayne... I feel like a tragic hero in a Shakespeare play

  Tupac Shakur

  Hero, Play, White

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• Some people will say, "Why read a comic book? It stifles the imagination. If you read a novel you imagine what people are like. If you read a comic, it's showing you." The only answer I can give is, "You can read a Shakespeare play, but does that mean you wouldn't want to see it on the stage?

  Stan Lee

  Book, Mean, Play

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• 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.

  Ian Mcewan

  Men, Play, Watches

  "Ian McEwan: By the Book". The New York Times Interview, www.nytimes.com. December 6, 2012.

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• You travel the world, you go see different things. I like to see Shakespeare plays, so I'll go - I mean, even if it's in a different language. I don't care, I just like Shakespeare, you know. I've seen Othello and Hamlet and Merchant of Venice over the years, and some versions are better than others. Way better. It's like hearing a bad version of a song. But then somewhere else, somebody has a great version.

  Bob Dylan

  Song, Mean, Years

  "Bob Dylan: 'Passion is a young man's game, older people gotta be wise'". Interview with Robert Love, www.independent.co.uk. February 7, 2015.

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• The greatest crime in a Shakespeare play is to murder the king.

  Alex Cox

  Kings, Play, Murder

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• Literate households in the 17th century would have had the Bible, John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress," and a couple of other books. Shakespeare plays were cheap, so you could buy those, but a folio cost a pound, which was an incredible amount of money then.

  Stephen Greenblatt

  Couple, Book, Play

  Source: www.bostonglobe.com

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• I am a man who used to wear the tights. We traveled the country doing two Shakespeare plays for bored college students for about a year. I think I'd probably still be doing it now if I hadn't just randomly decided to go to a sketch group audition. That led to doing improv, which led to the Daily Show. But it was fun while it lasted.

  Rob Corddry

  Country, Fun, College

  "20Q Rob Corddry". Interview with Eric ­Spitznagel, www.playboy.com. September 22, 2014.

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• People are going to say, ‘Well, it’s not very truthful.’ But a songwriter doesn’t care about what’s truthful. What he cares about is what should’ve happened, what could’ve happened. That’s its own kind of truth. It’s like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name.

  Bob Dylan

  Thinking, Names, Play

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• Why are we reading a Shakespeare play or 'Huckleberry Finn?' Well, because these works are great, but they also tell us something about the times in which they were created. Unfortunately, previous eras and dead authors often used language or accepted as normal sentiments that we now find unacceptable.

  Jane Smiley

  Reading, Play, Eras

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• People assume that I'm very highly trained, that I studied and did years and years of Shakespeare. I have no training whatsoever and I've only done one Shakespeare play at university. If people want to believe that, I'm happy to go along with it.

  Hugh Laurie

  Believe, Years, Play

  FaceBook post by Hugh Laurie from Mar 31, 2015

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• A lot of people have a fear of Shakespeare. Even actors do. People are like, "Oh, I won't go and see Shakespeare because the language is so hard," but it is. When you read it on the page, you go, "What?! What does that mean?!" If you go to a Shakespeare play and you've never been, you sit there and go, "I'm an idiot! I don't get it!"

  Hugo Weaving

  Mean, Play, People

  Source: collider.com

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• You're just trying on different identities, like everyone in those Shakespeare plays. And the people we pretend at, they're already in us. That's why we pretend them in the first place.

  Gayle Forman

  Play, People, Trying

  FaceBook post by Gayle Forman from Apr 12, 2014

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• One of the things that gives me a lot of pleasure about both the solo show and the book is that it tells people about my dad. He really was an important man. He was a kind of pioneer of regional theater. He was the first American producer to ever produce all of Shakespeare plays.

  John Lithgow

  Dad, Book, Men

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• My favorite play is Hamlet. It was my first love when it comes to Shakespeare, and I've read it and seen it performed more than just about every other Shakespeare play. I've had the "To be or not to be" monologue memorized since I was 15, and it's just really close to my heart.

  Ian Doescher

  Heart, First Love, Play

  Source: www.thegeekgirlproject.com

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• All the great Shakespeare plays are about killing. Alas, poor Yorick, that's about death. And in Romeo and Juliet everyone up ends up dying. The greatest dramas in the world are all about sex, violence and death.

  Ray Winstone

  Sex, Drama, Play

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Nature listening stood, whilst Shakespeare play'd
  And wonder'd at the work herself had made.

  Charles Churchill

  Play, Listening, Wonder

  Charles Churchill (1892). “The Poetical Works of Charles, Churchill”

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• You can read a Shakespeare play, but does that mean you wouldn't want to see it on the stage?

  Stan Lee

  Mean, Play, Doe

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• I got an M.F.A. in acting from NYU, and part of our training is to learn how to use swords in combat situations in a performance and Shakespeare plays where you have to fight.

  Danai Gurira

  Fighting, Play, Nyu

  "'The Walking Dead's' Danai Gurira Excited to Embody Badass Michonne". Interview with Lesley Goldberg, www.hollywoodreporter.com. March 22, 2012.

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• Whether it is the cavemen in the caves thousands of years ago, Shakespeare plays, television, movies and books, stories and characters take us on a journey. All I do is tell those stories without scripts and without actors.

  Mark Burnett

  Book, Character, Journey

  "Burnett is reality TV survivor". www.cnn.com. April 19, 2004.

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• It's an intuitive exercise to do a Shakespeare play and to go through a Shakespeare play.

  Mark Rylance

  Exercise, Play, Intuitive

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• It's good to have a lot of once-in-a-lifetimes in your lifetime. If you get the chance to skydive, go skydiving. If you're offered a part in a weird Shakespeare play in San Diego, slap on some tights and rock out some iambic pentameter.

  Neil Patrick Harris

  Rocks, Play, San Diego

  "Neil Patrick Harris pens his Hollywood Survival Guide for this week's cover". www.ew.com. September 22, 2011.

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