Keira Knightley Quotes

I would be extremely stupid if I said that my looks had absolutely nothing to do with what I do, it [moviemaking] is a visual medium. I'm perfectly aware of that, the face and the body help. Of course they do.

I'm a tomboy beanpole? I can't use a computer, so maybe I'm a bit out of the loop. I don't know whether to be flattered or not flattered. The beanpole bit, is that good? Can you be a sexy beanpole?

It's all about perfection, isn't it?

I've had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it's paparazzi photographers or for film posters.

[The press] said to me yesterday 'How does it feel to be called anorexic?' and I had no idea that I was. I'm not saying there aren't people in the film industry that suffer from it, because I am sure that there are. But I'm quite sure I don't have it.

I find it difficult to see the romance in digital.

I enjoy doing an action scene. I'm not a purist as far as films go. If you want to do sex, great. As long as you do it well.

I have no idea whether I am completely sane. I don't think anybody is. I see the world through my eyes. It's sometimes a strange world. I hope I don't hurt people. You hope not to hurt yourself too much, either. Maybe that's the definition of keeping yourself in check?

My upbringing is why I am the person I am today. I have very wise parents.

I think fashion is like putting on armor. I like that aspect of it, but it's not something I want to think about every day.

All through my life what I've loved doing is watching movies. I love the escapism of film, I love stories. So it is incredible to be able to be in them as much as I am, to see them from the first stitch in a costume to the end product.

Humans who see something different than them want to hate it and tear it down. Britain had a government policy that allowed prejudice to destroy someone's life, and today there is still homophobia at home and elsewhere, like Russia or Greece. It's still a relevant discussion. While women have it better than the 1940s or '50s, sexism is still prevalent.

I’ve noticed that the people who started on film still have the ability to see the person in front of them. Whereas for a lot of photographers who have only ever worked in digital, the relationship between the photographer and the person who they’re taking a picture of sort of doesn’t exist anymore. They’re looking at a computer screen as opposed to the person.

I always feel like I'm the one with everything to prove.

Nice is the worst word.

I think sometimes it's sort of easier to be playing a role based on a real person because there's quite often a lot more information, you're not making it up, it's there in books, it's there in research form. But really the questions you ask about the character, and why people behave, and where they come, and how they've ended up in the places they've ended up are the same.

It's a difficult thing when you try and make a film of a book that you really love. You have about two hours to tell the story, and it's never going to be enough.

My mum says that I was born 45, and I do remember at six thinking that I should be earning my own living.

Be happy in your body. It's the only one you've got, so you might as well like it.

I like watching films when I don't know anything about the people.

I cook. I go to farmers markets in London and cook really good sort of organic foods.

When I was about 5 I think, I desperately wanted to be a pirate and have the hat and everything.

I worked with John Maybury on The Jacket and I think he's an extraordinary film-maker. I read the first drafts of this piece when I was working on The Jacket, and we'd so fallen in love with him that we thought he was the only person that should direct this! We wrote poems for him, we sent him champagne and cakes. Four years later he finally read it.

I've had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it's paparazzi photographers or for film posters. The topless Interview shoot was one of the ones where I said: 'OK, I'm fine doing the topless shot so long as you don't make them any bigger or retouch.' Because it does feel important to say it really doesn't matter what shape you are. I think women's bodies are a battleground, and photography is partly to blame. Our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape.

I think you've got to take the risks. There's no point playing it safe, because either you'll get bored or the audiences will get bored. Sometimes, you're going to make mistakes, and that's fine, but you have to take the risks. I think Pirates is one of the prime examples of that with Johnny Depp's performance, and part of the reason that people love it so much is that you watch it and go, "Gutsy, really gutsy!"

I'm obsessed with shoes. I must have hundreds of pairs...That reminds me- I need to go shopping!

I don’t know what happened through the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s that took feminism off the table, that made it something that women weren’t supposed to identify with and were supposed to be ashamed of. Feminism is about the fight for equality between the sexes, with equal respect, equal pay, and equal opportunity. At the moment we are still a long way off that.

And we're fortunate if we have parents who are great and loving and inspiring. But, unfortunately, there are people who don't have that.

Envy is the last thing that my parents feel.

Some people say Dylan Thomas mischievous, he's a child, and other people say he's quite demonic. I don't think we should dictate about him, if that's your view of him, that's wonderful, but it's great to know that other people think differently.

You bring yourself to every role, it doesn't matter who it is, it doesn't matter if it's a mass murderer, you can bring something to it.

I'm ... incredibly open with my mates. Or even people I just meet.

I see the world through my eyes. It's sometimes a strange world.

Well, the thing about great fictional characters from literature, and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies, is that they completely speak to what makes people human.

I think I always disappoint people, because they always expect someone very pretty. Very done. There’s so much pressure to be thin, blonde and busty. I’m skinny, but even I couldn’t fit into some of the clothes in L.A! In a funny kind of way, I think you create it yourself. I think it’s much better to go with the flow and embrace your body, whatever shape it is, and just be happy.

In film as a medium, you're often given a baddie and a goodie and told what to think about them; it's usually a very definite point of view.

At this particular time, I probably am more comfortable with myself. Just now I'm having a lovely time.

I love costume dramas, I love performing in them, because in a funny kind of way, you feel more free. You know about the period, you can read the books, you can see the paintings, but you've never actually going to know what it was like. You can kind of stretch those boundaries a bit.

My doctor was like, 'Any questions?' And I was like, 'Yes! When can I drink please?!' I just want a margarita.

If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything. You'd just ask for forgiveness and then you'd be forgiven. It sounds much better than having to live with guilt.

Because it does feel important to say it really doesn't matter what shape you are.

I don't quite understand what Tolstoy's actual personal view of Anna is - whether he likes her or hates her, whether she's the heroine or the antiheroine.