Chiwetel Ejiofor

It's hard to tell the story if you're not involved yourself, emotionally. ”

I wouldn't be the same actor if I couldn't do theater. ”

I look at scripts really for whether they can be moving or penetrate some kind of truth. You are constantly chasing that feeling as an actor when every part of a production comes together. ”

I like to disappear into a role. I equate the success of it with a feeling of being chemically changed. That's the only way I can express it. ”

I have an evolving relationship with my father, and his memory, especially the older I get. I know that some of the things that interested him are things that interest me. ”

I love the theater community and theater life, and would love to figure out the distinctive differences between Broadway and the West End. ”

The truth is, it's a totalitarian dictatorship when you're making films. You are the boss. You can listen to other people, and it can be a benevolent dictatorship, but it's a dictatorship nonetheless. A lot of directors go past their first experience, that's what they've come away with. ”

There's a catharsis in cutting down trees. But there's absolutely none of that in picking cotton. It's maddening! It's fiddly, and it pricks your fingers, and it's something that's a very hard skill if you have no alacrity for it. ”

I think, as a younger actor, you are more open to the experience. And to an extent, you want to go into things blind and energised as if you were 15. Keep that terror. ”

It's hard to maintain a life when you do a play. You feel you have to pretend to go through a normal day, knowing that in the evening you'll be doing this. ”