MARIANNE ELLIOTT

You need to see yourself in what you direct, I think - directing is quite self-indulgent from that point of view.

I believe that theater has to be utterly life-changing for the people watching it.

I never wanted anything to do with the theatre as a child. I was dragged there under duress.

My father was a director, and my mother and grandparents were actors, so I spent a great deal of my time as a teenager trying to get away from the theatre.

The actors work out how to create the show with me during the rehearsals. They owe it to themselves and each other to maintain that contract regardless of what the critics say.

I worked in casting for about five years before I became a director, and that taught me a huge amount because you never actually will see the character walk through the door - and if you do, then you have to be slightly suspicious of that.

I think theater is so undervalued. I have seen things there that have been far more vivid than things that actually have happened.

Having a child is all-consuming; so is doing a play.

I always wanted to beat my own path.

I just think that you have to approach anything you do with a huge amount of integrity - I don't really care where it comes from, whether it's a children's piece or an adult piece.

It's difficult to find an actress prepared to play a fading star.

In subsidized theater, you are encouraged to take risks. It's about being imaginative and artistic. That's the priority. It might not be a success, but let's try.

When I was a kid, I never spoke. I would sit under a table and not speak to anybody. No words for years.

If it is just another run-of-the-mill show, then what is the point?

I used to love getting older.

As you get older, you realise that your identity becomes more important - the environment in which you have grown is actually part of who you are just as much as your family or your school.

I didn't want to just be remembered for 'War Horse.'

I'm quite unusual in directing terms: I'm a woman. I'm quite a girly girl. I was never academic.

I am quite an insecure person, and I think that, like any director, if I'm asked about my vision for a piece, I feel very vulnerable.

I suppose I always find a lot of characters that are deeply, deeply keening with a sense of yearning and desire through sadness, but they have a bravery that keeps them going despite that.

For me, 'Angels in America' is not really about AIDS. For me, it's a metaphor for anybody who is struggling with serious illness or having to face their own demise. All of the characters face some form of destruction in themselves.

Horses are wild animals, essentially, and they're not there to do what humans want them to - they can be browbeaten or cajoled or trained, but they don't hear English; they're not obedient most of the time.

It is draining when you have a child, and there aren't many women directors with kids out there as role models.

A bad audition is usually the director's fault, not the actor's. It's up to the director to get the atmosphere right to get the best out of your auditionees.

It's a tremendous asset if you have a visual eye because you can make huge visual statements in a very theatrical way and play to the strength of theatre. But the high end of directing is working with actors and making the acting the best it can be.