Shakespeare in Love

"The Master of the Revels despises us all for vagrants and peddlers of bombast. But my father, James Burbage, had the first license to make a company of players from Her Majesty, and he drew from poets the literature of the age. We must show them that we are men of parts. Will Shakespeare has a play. I have a theatre. The Curtain is yours."

"I would stay asleep my whole life, if I could dream myself into a company of players."

"[to her Nurse] I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No... not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, but love that overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable - like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Love - like there has never been in a play."

"Write me well."

"I know something of a woman in a man's profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that."

"[to Lord Wessex] Have her then, but you're a lordly fool. She's been plucked since I saw her last, and not by you... it takes a woman to know it."

"Master Kent, as I foretold, Lord Wessex has lost his wife to the theater. Go, make your farewell, and send her out."

"Love denied blights the soul we owe to God."

"You see? The comsumptives plot against me. "Will Shakespeare has a play, let us go and cough through it.""

"[last lines] My story starts at sea... a perilous voyage to an unknown land... a shipwreck... The wild waters roar and heave... The brave vessel is dashed all to pieces, and all the helpless souls within her drowned... all save one... a lady... whose soul is greater than the ocean... and her spirit stronger than the sea's embrace... Not for her a watery end, but a new life beginning on a stranger shore. It will be a love story... for she will be my heroine for all time. And her name will be... Viola."

"A Comedy About the Greatest Love Story Almost Never Told..."

"Love is the only inspiration."

"Joseph Fiennes - Will Shakespeare"

"Gwyneth Paltrow - Viola De Lesseps"

"Judi Dench - Queen Elizabeth"

"Geoffrey Rush - Philip Henslowe"

"Colin Firth - Lord Wessex"

"Tom Wilkinson - Hugh Fennyman"

"Ben Affleck - Ned Alleyn"

"Steve O'Donnell - Lambert"

"Tim McMullen - Frees"

"Steven Beard - Makepeace"

"Patrick Barlow - Will Kempe"

"Martin Clunes - Richard Burbage"

"Rupert Everett - Christopher Marlowe"

"Sandra Reinton - Rosaline"

"Simon Callow - Edmund Tylney"

"Imelda Staunton - Nurse"

"Jill Baker - Lady De Lesseps"

"Nicholas Le Prevost - Sir Robert De Lesseps"

"Joe Roberts - John Webster"

"I have always liked movies, and sometimes an image or a scene or a character stays with me for years and inspires me when I write. For example: the magic in Fanny and Alexander or the story within a story of Shakespeare in Love."