Top 99 Hamlet Quotes

Both Brutus and Hamlet are highly intellectual by nature and reflective by habit. Both may even be called, in a popular sense, philosophic; Brutus may be called so in a stricter sense.

The funny thing with Ophelia is that I remembered her being this really cool, awesome female character when I read ‘Hamlet’ in high school, and when I went back and read it, no, she’s not.

When I see a friend play Hamlet or see an inspirational performance, I absolutely get excited by the idea of changing things up.

Most actors are either a shower of bloody scruffs or think they should dress like Hamlet off stage.

Probably 90 percent of the stuff I make has inevitably been done before… Whether it’s playing Hamlet, which has been on the go for 400 years, or pieces from the cinematic world that also have been essayed before, I feel released by that.

Every time has its own ‘Hamlet.’

If you were to ask everyone what ‘Hamlet’ was about, they might say, “It’s about a prince, and he says, ‘To be or not to be.'”

I grew up doing regional Shakespeare, and when Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, there’s something about that that you don’t really do in film anymore.

I have never wanted to check out the family folklore that we could be traced back to a dominie at the hamlet of Balquhidder in the Scottish highlands.

I was doing Hamlet in the off-season, and I had a specific idea in my mind about what I wanted that character to look like, and because it’s going to lead into the next year, I knew that it was going to have to be established somewhere in the show.

Visually speaking, nothing calls Shakespeare to mind like Hamlet holding Yorick’s skull.

Romeo is the most misunderstood character in literature, I think. He’s hardcore to play because he’s displaying the characteristics of Hamlet at the beginning, and, well, then everything else happens.

I have no problems with remakes, and I think it’s interesting. I mean, coming from the theater, we’ve been remaking ‘Hamlet’ for a hundred years, so it’s no problem to me at all. A good story can be told in many different ways in different places; I just think it’s interesting.

‘Hamlet’ is a play about a man whose grief is deemed unseemly.

The great thing about Satan is it’s kind of like Hamlet. Everyone puts their own signature on it in a way, whether it’s Al Pacino or little old me.

I got dared to audition for a play by my best friend Paul. He got cast in ‘Hamlet,’ and I got cast in ‘Prelude to a Kiss,’ and that changed everything.

I look forward to the day when indigenous actors can play Hamlet and Ophelia and not just Othello and Desdemona.

There have been more books alone written about Hamlet than have been written about the Bible.

There’s posh character actors. For God’s sake, Olivier was one of the greatest character actors in the world. Hamlet, Shylock, Othello – Othello! Whether you like it or not.

When I think of all the Hamlets I’ve seen, there’s been a load of different styles, some marvellous. You like the Hamlet you saw when you were the right age to think you could be Hamlet.

You have to learn the language of Hamlet.

Hamlet is a little daunting.

Every young actor wants to do ‘Hamlet’ on the West End. Why? Because they can bring something to it.

Anytime you create art, you create a mess. I mean, ‘Hamlet’ is a mess!

I look at it like this: that if Shakespeare were alive today, he would have written two or three plays about the Kennedy family, and actors would traditionally play JFK like they Hamlet or King Lear. They just would. I mean, people have played JFK, and they’ll play him long after I have.

Shakespeare is in many ways an African writer and ‘Hamlet’ would be seen as a very accurate historical saga about an African kingdom.

At the close of the day when the hamlet is still, and mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove, when naught but the torrent is heard on the hill, and naught but the nightingale’s song in the grove.

I never want to see ‘Hamlet’ ever again! Never ever!

One of the most beautiful things about Shakespeare’s Hamlet is when he stops in the middle of the play to ask, ‘To be or not to be?’ Then, right at the end, he decides to ‘let be.’ The first season of ‘Stranger Things’ was Hopper asking whether ‘to be or not to be’ and the second is to ‘let be.’

The review I’ve been most offended by came when I played Hamlet. I’d always prided myself on being an ‘invisible actor’ and not getting in the way of the play. But this review didn’t mention me once. That’s worse than being insulted.

Few areas which are not publicly owned can boast as many footpaths as the Cuckmere Valley. For a short walk, a footbridge across the river leads back to the little hamlet of Milton Street, where another classic local pub, the Sussex Ox, provides an admirable lunch.

What if Shakespeare had had a test audience for Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet?

Hamlet is the result of Shakespeare’s work on Brutus.

In Shakespeare’s world, characters cannot trust their senses. Is the ghost in Hamlet true and truthful, or is it a demon, tempting young Hamlet into murderous sin? Is Juliet dead or merely sleeping? Does Lear really stand at the edge of a great cliff? Or has the Fool deceived him to save his life?

As a child, I would watch ‘Frasier’ a lot, and there was one episode with Derek Jacobi where he was playing this Shakespearean actor that was a terrible Hamlet. And he reenacted the performance, and for days I went on. I’d perform and do that, and I knew I wanted to do something kind of like that as a kid for awhile.

I still want to find some place to play ‘Hamlet,’ and if ‘Far and Away’ helps me do that, that would be nice.

I have felt some twinges recently, about parts I wanted to play that I may be getting too old and fat to do. ‘Hamlet,’ for example – maybe that’s gone. I would love to play Richard II.

Five billion people have played Hamlet. ‘To be or not to be.’ And how do you do that and find your way into your own journey, your own way of telling it?

Who of English speech, bred to the traditions of his race, does not recognize Hamlet in his ‘inky cloak’ at a glance? Not to know him would argue one’s self untaught in the chief glories of his language.

I’m just an entertainer. All I want to be is funny. I never aspired to play Hamlet.

Hamlet’ is a real ensemble piece: you have to realise that he’s just one part of the story.

As an artist, you’re thankful to get a shot at a story more than once, because it doesn’t happen all the time. Whether you talk about ‘Hamlet’ or ‘Death of a Salesman,’ you always want to see what the next group of actors will do.

The actor is too prone to exaggerate his powers; he wants to play Hamlet when his appearance is more suitable to King Lear.

The most enduring stories in literature generally have some kind of crime at their center, whether it’s the bloody butchery of ‘Hamlet,’ the lecherous misanthropes of Dickens or the lone gunman from ‘The Great Gatsby.’

I’d love to play St. Joan or Hamlet, and hopefully I will.

Every time one can write a self-deluded song, you are way ahead of the game, way ahead. Self-delusion is the basis of nearly all the great scenes in all the great plays, from ‘Oedipus’ to ‘Hamlet.’

You think back and you ask yourself why you became so interested in wolves. I think it was because when I was very small, growing up in a little hamlet near Shap, we would go to Lowther Wildlife Park for birthday parties. Now closed, it was only three miles from my parents’ house.

I played Hamlet, I played Chekhov and Ibsen and all the classics.

I was so scared of going back to the theatre after ‘Hamlet.’ I didn’t know if I’d do a play again because I was afraid of the power of it.

I’m on the list that I thought I’d never be on. I’m not sitting here thinking, ‘God, I might get this part’ or ‘is it too late for me to play Hamlet?’ It’s really about: who do I get to work with? There’s so many people on that list.

After the first ‘Hedwig,’ interestingly, I was offered to play Hamlet a couple of times.

‘Hamlet’ is a play of many strange parts, with ghosts and players, politicians and clowns.

If I ever play Hamlet, it’ll be in a dress!

‘Macbeth’ sags in act four – the England scene with Malcolm and Macduff just doesn’t work theatrically. But with ‘Hamlet,’ although the play is so long, Shakespeare manages to sustain the arc.

I’ve played Hamlet and Coriolanus, Orlando in ‘As You like It’ and Ariel in ‘Tempest,’ among others.

We remake ‘Hamlet’ all the time. That’s sort of what we do, humans.

I don’t make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare – in fact, unless you’re a good comedian, you’re never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.

Like, that was weird in ‘Hamlet 2,’ because I played myself there, fully myself, but then I realized, ‘Oh, I’m not playing myself. I’m some weird version of myself.’ So as an actress, you’re always playing something, I don’t even know who I am, how could I become me? I don’t know what that is.

‘Hamlet’ is obviously a role a lot of actors want to portray or be involved with in some way and that I’d like to be involved in.

The trap in Hamlet is he’s the most passive of Shakespeare’s characters. He’s not a Richard III, not out there taking a lot of action. It’s a lot of asides and soliloquies where he’s wrapped in angst, and that’s not a very interesting character.

You can do ‘Hamlet’ while performing cartwheels… as long as the audience sees your eyes – you can make the performance real.

I saw Derek Jacobi play Hamlet when I was 17, and he directed me as Hamlet when I was 27, and I directed him as Claudius in ‘Hamlet’ when I was 35, and I’m hoping we meet again in some other production of Hamlet before we both toddle off.

I do everything I can to have a diverse career because I just want to have options. I know that I can do Hamlet or I can do Stanley Kowalski, you know.

‘Born to play? Hmmm. Probably Romeo… or Hamlet, I guess. Also, I’d be a great Alexander the Great.

I’ve got no pretence that I want to do ‘Hamlet’ or anything, I know my limitations.

I had a good theater career for years. I played Hamlet when I was 22, and I’ve played some really great roles.

I’d love to play Hamlet.

I’m not saying that Sam J. Jones was Flash Gordon – there’s no such thing. No actor can be the person, that’s a bunch of crap. People pay to see an actor be himself, whether he plays Hamlet or whatever.

Sibling relationships are complicated. All family relationships are. Look at Hamlet.

Hamlet, that’s the only role there is, finally. The only role. After that, you settle down and only do the fun things on stage.

I learned a lot about Ottoman court, and it was very Shakespearian in essence. Stories like the one in ‘Hamlet’ did happen several times in the 500 years of Ottoman history.

I’ve done classical theaters. I played Hamlet myself and Romeo.

I’d not really ever expected to play anything like ‘Hamlet.’ I hadn’t seen myself as a natural Hamlet, whatever a natural Hamlet is, and I quickly realised there is no such thing.

I would love to play Henry IV, Henry V, and Hamlet.

‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ is a wonderful machine. It’s one of the great farces, and it’s astonishing to remember that this is written by the same man who wrote ‘Hamlet,’ ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ or ‘Cymbeline.’ It’s so similar, and yet the form is so different.

I don’t think of ‘Macbeth’ as the villain. I don’t think of ‘King Lear’ as the villain. I don’t think of ‘Hamlet’ as the villain. I don’t think of ‘Travis Bickle’ as the villain.

Shakespeare was the main thing I did in my life from the age of 16 when I first played ‘Hamlet’ at school. I then did summer stock the next summer and then went to RADA and joined the RSC and ran my own company and then worked at the Globe. That was about 30 years of my life.

From the wrestling of his own soul with the great enemy, comes that depth and mystery which startles us in Hamlet.

‘Hamlet’ is a universal story that concerns us all. These issues do not concern only Muslims, but all people equally, showing that we all share the same problems regardless of religion, nation and culture.

Richard III is not likeable. Macbeth is not likeable. Hamlet is not likeable. And yet you can’t take your eyes off them. I’m far more interested in that than I am in any sort of likeability.

At drama school, I got a job choreographing and teaching the fights for Mark Rylance doing ‘Hamlet’ at the Globe in London when I was only 19. They made me fight captain.

I’m as happy doing ‘Postman Pat’ as I am doing ‘Hamlet.’

I don’t think Hamlet is mad, nor is he predisposed to be a gloomy or tragic figure.

Perhaps because my background is theatrical, I have a great affinity with the classics. Hamlet has always been a character of great interest to me and a character I would really love to play. Or a character in a Tennessee Williams play, maybe Tom in ‘The Glass Menagerie.’

It doesn’t matter if you’re big and tall or ugly or pretty. Deep inside, every actor wants to play Hamlet, at least I hope he does, because that’s the craft.

You have to get through the Hamlet hoop as a young actor. Your classical qualifications are based on the quality of your Hamlet. And then, as an older actor, you have to get through the Lear hoop. And I’m approaching the Lear hoop.

The time has mainly gone on getting Inform into a decent shape for public use. I suppose the plot of ‘Curses’ makes a sequel conceivable when compared with, say, the plot of ‘Hamlet’ but none is planned.

I would rather play Hamlet with no rehearsal than TV golf.

‘Hamlet’ is the most famous play in the world for a reason. The journey you go on is incredible.

The longer I’ve been doing this, the more I’ve realized that you have no idea what kinds of roles are possible for you – dream roles can take you by surprise. That being said, I need to play Hamlet one day. I’d also love to be in a play that I have written myself.

Most people don’t know that I am an accomplished dramatic actor… But I’ve performed in several Shakespeare productions including Hamlet, except in this version, Hamlet lives in an apartment with two women, and has to pretend he’s gay so that the landlord won’t evict him.

Someday, I expect to see a television version of ‘Hamlet’ and see Hamlet come on during the intermission and hold up his sword and say ‘This is made of the same fine steel as such-and-such razor blades.’

I’ve seen ‘Hamlet’ many times, and Hamlet, he was just a hideous neurotic; he never changes. He doubts – all the way to the end, all the way until when he dies, he doubts.

‘Hamlet’ is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what’s real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.

What actor doesn’t want to walk around a set and be called ‘Mr. President?’ Playing POTUS is a kind of rite of passage among American actors – our version of playing Hamlet.

Yes, it’s annoying that Hamlet doesn’t kill his stepfather ten minutes into the play, but if he did kill his stepfather ten minutes into the play, there wouldn’t be a play. He has to be annoying, if you will, and not do what would be the thing to do.

The thing that I had saved up for myself and wanted most to bring off was a fully fledged professional production of Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford.

If you look at it, ‘The Lion King’ is very similar to ‘Hamlet.’

The reason that I’m a writer today is because of Shakespeare and falling in love with Shakespeare when I was 8. That was through the movies, actually – through Olivier’s ‘Hamlet.’ That was the first thing that got me to fall in love with Shakespeare and movies and everything in one big preadolescent rush.