Vicky McClure

If you have a passion and love for something, it's hard to give it up. I had jobs where the people were helpful and let me go to auditions, and I'd make up the hours another day. I was lucky in that respect: I could afford to get to London.

But I liked Yeats! That wild Irishman. I really loved his love of language, his flow. His chaotic ideas seemed to me just the right thing for a poet. Passion! He was always on the right side. He may be wrongheaded, but his heart was always on the right side. He wrote beautiful poetry.