John Barton

“There's always a secret in a Shakespeare play.”

“I sometimes think that the greatest service a director can do for a playwright is to be a good editor.”

“Shakespeare is a writer of opposites. He will always give you a contrary.”

“Rhythm is not a metronome. It's the heartbeat of the character.”

“When in doubt, speak the verse as if it’s prose and the prose as if it’s verse.”

“The word 'and' is a goldmine. It connects things, but it also implies a consequence.”

“If you speak verse, you have to find the human truth in it, and the human truth is not always pretty.”

“The actor has to be an athlete of the emotions.”

“The text is a score, and the actor is the musician.”

“Find the argument in the speech. What is the character trying to achieve?”

“You have to serve the text, not your own ego.”