In the theatre, every form once born is mortal every form must be reconceived, and its new conception will bear the marks of all the influences that surround it.

Shakespeare doesn't belong to the past. If his material is valid, it is valid now. It's like coal. The only meaningfulness of a piece of coal starts and finishes with its combustion, giving us light and heat. And that to me is Shakespeare.

An icon painter starts not with Jesus Christ but by finding earth and rubbing. Now what is earth, what are you rubbing in directing?

Time, which is so often an enemy in life, can also become our ally if we see how a pale moment can lead to a glowing moment, and then turn to a moment of perfect transparency, before dropping again to a moment of everyday simplicity.

Preparing a character is the opposite of building-it is a demolishing, removing brick by brick everything in the actor's muscles, ideas and inhibitions that stands between him and the part, until one day, with a great rush of air, the character invades his every pore.

I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.

Drama is exposure it is confrontation it is contradiction and it leads to analysis, construction, recognition and eventually to an awakening of understanding.

The work of rehearsal is looking for meaning and then making it meaningful.

I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space, whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.

We are aware that the conductor is not really making the music, it is making him -- if he is relaxed, open and attuned, then the invisible will take possession of him through him, it will reach us.

The work of a director can be summed up in two very simple words. Why and How.

The closeness of reality and the distance of myth, because if there is no distance you aren't amazed, and if there is no closeness you aren't moved.

You have to live to the responsibility of the person who has won, which is even greater than the responsibility of a person who has lost.

Tradition itself, in times of dogmatism and dogmatic revolution, is a revolutionary force which must be safeguarded.