Quotes

I've now been there, done that, and got the T-shirt. We just went to the registry office, signed a bit of paper and it was all over. We didn't have a bit party, but we had twenty-five friends to lunch. It was very quiet though, all over in a morning. - On his civil partnership ceremony

It's as though you have crossed Niagara on a tightrope 250 times and, on the 251st crossing---vertigo. You are convinced you can't move across the stage without falling over. You go rigid from the knees down. You suddenly wonder, why am I doing this? I knew I'd got to get through a whole season, three speaking parts, and that if I ran away, I would never act on stage again. It was that knowledge that shocked me out of my illness. But I had a very bad time in the first weeks. - DJ, regarding his two-year spell of stage fright and subsequent return in 1982 to the Royal Shakespeare Company

Acting is painting, not photography, but painting is just as 'real' as photography. As an actor conscious that you are in a theatre, you still have to make it look as spontaneous as if you did not know that you are being watched by 1,000 pairs of eyes.

I've been acting for 33 years. I've proved I can do it. So any performance now has got to be deeper and better than that, nothing to do with ego, bravura, look-at-me acting. That is an invitation to the audience to assess your ability, and it gets in the way. The object is to get past that and lose yourself in your belief in the person you are trying to create. To find something absolutely real. But I constantly hope to go further than I manage to do. DJ, 1992 interview

Comedy is hard, though: you need a reaction from the audience, and if you don't get something back you immediately feel off-balance. Tragedy is easier, in a way; if they don't do anything, you can convince yourself they're profoundly moved, and that's why. Possibly they're just asleep.