Particularly for English people Shakespeare is always at the forefront of both drama and the English language. He's always been there. I can't remember starting school and not learning about him.

What makes this story so remarkable is that throughout my early childhood I had ongoing learning difficulties particularly in mathematics. I struggled to learn the multiplication table and no matter how hard I tried I simply couldn't remember 6 times 7 or 7 times 8.

I learned a lot from my Mom. My favorite lesson: remember there is no such thing as a certain way to parent and to remember that you are learning along with your child - it's ok to make mistakes.

I remember in the circus learning that the clown was the prince the high prince. I always thought that the high prince was the lion or the magician but the clown is the most important.

As an audience member those studio films are fun. I like an adventure tale and I also like to go see something that has more of a social pulse. I like to keep learning and trying new things. And if the scripts are good it doesn't really matter.

I do remember actually learning chords to Beatles songs. I thought they were great songwriters.

The process of learning requires not only hearing and applying but also forgetting and then remembering again.

I always found the extraordinary loss of life in the First World War very moving. I remember learning about it as a very young child as an eight- or nine-year-old asking my teachers what poppies were for. Every year the teachers would suddenly wear these red paper flowers in their lapels and I would say 'What does that mean?'

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

There's a very big gulf between the black civil rights leadership in America and the black middle class in America. The black middle class are conservative. Many of those minorities can be persuaded to be members of the Republican Party.