Benedict Cumberbatch Quotes

Fame is a weird one. You need to distance yourself from it. People see a value in you that you don't see yourself.

I'm a high-functioning sociopath, do your research.

The guy [Doctor Strange], he's like most of us, he's uncorrupted flesh from the beginning of his life, he's somebody who's not marked with original sin or any kind of crap like that. He's somebody who's come into this world and had experiences that have shaped him to the point that we first meet him. There's always got to be leverage. I think there is some clear explanation of that within this film, but potentially further down the line...for more of that to come out as well.

Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I'm also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.

I'm a Prince of Wales Trust ambassador, so I'm all about giving youth an education, a voice and a chance to not take the wrong road.

I always seem to be cast as slightly wan, ethereal, troubled intellectuals or physically ambivalent bad lovers. But I'm here to tell you I'm quite the opposite in real life. In fact I'm a f**king fantastic lover.

I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book.

I'm always playing characters with intellects profoundly superior to mine. That's great fun, even though it's as much a fantasy for me as for the people watching me.

It's always important to have the blessing.

I love the idea of playing something stupid or romantic. I'm not the smartest man in the room. I listen, and I learn, and I observe, but I'm always playing characters with intellects profoundly superior to mine. That's great fun, even though it's as much a fantasy for me as for the people watching me.

I got live tweeted once by someone who was opposite my home in some rented accommodation. He was actually describing on twitter what I was doing. 'I took a shirt off, I went to the window, I put a shirt back on... ' And I've got blinds in my flat!

Mum did a lot of commercial theatre and farces in the 1980s and '90s to make sure the school bills were paid.

[Doctor Strange] gets scraped off the floor and then thrown right down to hell again and then slowly pulls himself back up.

All the backstories are there but not talked about.

I'm always keen to use my body in my work, so I'm looking forward to the motion capture for Smaug. Both Gollum and King Kong were primates, whereas I'm playing a serpent, so it'll be interesting - I'll have to tie my legs together, possibly, or else they'll be kind of splayed out to the side as a reptile's should be.

I haven't done period dramas back-to-back, or really anything back-to-back. You get asked to do what you're most recently famed for, so I'm careful of not repeating myself.

There's no shame in stealing - any actor who says he doesn't is lying. You steal from everything.

Do I like being thought of as attractive? I don't know anyone on Earth who doesn't, but I do find it funny.

I don't live beyond my means. I enjoy luxury and I enjoy the privilege of it, when I can afford it, and I'm in the situation where it's been given to me, but I'm very conscious of what is wasteful.

There's still nearly the same amount of slavery, if not more, in the world today, as there was at the height of the slave trade.

If I'm playing someone who's smart, suddenly every character I've played is smart. If I'm playing a bad guy, every character is a bad guy. I suppose it's that thing where people want to see a through-line to understand you. I mean, you know, I have played pretty ordinary people too.

If I'd had fame early on, I'd have been able to abuse it in the way that a young man should.

For brain surgeons it's particularly difficult to deal with failure. It was fascinating to learn about that whole world.

You'd have to be pretty hard-nosed not to feel some sympathy for the guy [Doctor Strange].

If people ask, 'Are you Sherlock Holmes?', it's horribly naff, but I say, 'I'm not, I just look a bit like him' - which is how I feel. There are bad attributes of his that I really don't share!

Look at you lot, you're all so vacant, is it nice not being me it must be so relaxing.

The armoury of having any academic education does not necessarily set you up for being a good or better actor.

I just increasingly enjoy the quiet moments when I can be on my own with my friends and family, or with a book, having a live experience. That's really what I crave, and I always have done.

There are things that are a given, that you've already established, and obviously, visually, certain iconic things that can't be completely removed, like a certain hat or a certain coat in my case.

Animations are really powerful - it's not just entertainment, it's a very cunning way to get good ideas across.

I was the boy that turned a girlfriend into the most celebrated lesbian on television. I got so much stick for that.

I have an appetite for the normal in my life, as well as the abnormal.

My mum and dad had worked incredibly hard to afford me an education.

It's one of the things that attracted me to the role [Doctor Strange] is the fact that it's a really widely origin story, I mean this is part of it, but of course there's the whole chapter before where he's the neurosurgeon who has the accident. It's fantastic.

I'm not very geeky. I'm quite homespun. I would say I'm more modern rustic than gadget-orientated. I like woollen things and log fires and whiskey

This is an odd profession, and sometimes people get jealous, but I haven't really experienced any of that. Everyone's been really happy for me, which is really, really great.

I remember very clearly someone saying, 'Don't shake hands with the cactus,' and I thought, 'Well, why not? What could possibly go wrong?' Shaking hands is a friendly gesture.

We should have a conversation when we hang up.

I realised quite early on that, although I wasn't trying to make a career speciality of it, I was playing slightly asexual, sociopathic intellectuals.

I've been quite a late developer on the clothes front, but I've suddenly realised it is one of life's joys.

Even the cerebral characters I play seem to have physical quirks. They're all "physically inhabited," for lack off a better expression. For instance, Sherlock Holmes has very particular physical gestures which are drawn out in such detail.

There's so much in the 21st century that is stymied by bureaucracy and mediocrity and committee.

Talking about class terrifies me. There is no way of winning.

Laughing and crying are really similar - what happens to your body. It's a very similar process in your diaphragm. Like a musician, you have to do your scales once in a while and warm up your voice.

Even though my parents experiences were different from mine. I wasn't a child actor brat; I didn't travel with them in the circuit. But I got a look into their world, so I did know what I was getting into, to an extent. And they are a constant source of grounding.

I try to work hard. I'm really proud of what I get to do as a living. I still pinch myself. But I also know it's a craft, and I can get better at it and learn every time I do it. So I try to work hard no matter what the task is.

There are other people who don't mind shouting from the pulpit and being judged for it, and they do a hell of a lot of good - real, on-the-ground, life-changing good. So I think it can sometimes be a balancing act.

We all want to escape our circumstances, don't we? Especially if you are an actor.