Between the lines: The actor Gerard Murphy hails the Citizens' charter

'Art can rest on sinister foundations and has the most intimate knowledge of sickness. They are both products of excess. The single-minded concentration of an artist works like a cancer, and passion absorbs utterly. Passion for reform, passion for power, passion for beauty, a thirst to show, a lust to tell, a rage to love. And because it is all too ecstatic, absurd, miserable, happy, horrible and holy to contain within myself, I will show what I love and tell what I love with ardour, whether it is Utopia, or the death of Kings or simply those beautiful young men without whom my life is as dry as a nut: so that for a moment we can see them, created in our image, in the glare of arc lamps as we should: beautiful, clever, wise, just and alive, and for that moment forget that we are ugly, crass, guilty, foolish and dying.' (Chinchilla,

by Robert David MacDonald)

Since I was lucky enough to be the first person to say these lines on a public stage in 1977, they have stayed with me and have become a part of my own thinking. That I'm glad to be an artist, that I am unafraid to show what I feel and that I love the theatre.

This love was born at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow - I could never have known at the time just how personally, professionally and artistically important this period was to be.

I do a job which can't be done at all without some luck. To be influenced by the work of Robert David MacDonald, Giles Havergal and Philip Prowse in my formative years was the best bit of luck I've ever had.

Gerard Murphy is Mosca in 'Volpone' at Birmingham Rep (021- 236 4455) until 26 June

(Photograph omitted)