Benedict Cumberbatch Quotes

Because reading is one of the joys of life, and once you begin, you can't stop, and you've got so many stories to look forward to.

Landing the role of Stephen Hawking was the most positively surprising thing that has happened to me.

I've been reading the books. It's the origination, it's the primary source. You should always go back to the books.

Being in front of an audience makes me feel alive. Being with friends makes me feel alive. I've done some crazy stuff in my time and yet I can feel infinitely alive curled up on a sofa reading a book. So, what makes me feel alive? I guess it's realizing I am part of the world around me.

One of the best things about being an actor is that it's a meritocracy.

It does get strange when you realize people will hang around for hours to get a glimpse of you doing scenes outside.

It still makes me giggle that I'm paid to act.

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've realised now that the reality of children is you have to be in the right place with the right person.

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

We have a lot more unlikely heroes now. It's not just the guy with guns - it's the guy with brains.

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.

A woman who knows that she doesn't have to get all decked out to look good is sexy. A woman who can make you feel smart with her conversation skills is also sexy. I believe the sense of humor is important.

I think with any characterization there's a point where you empathize, no matter how much of a deviance his or her actions may be from your understanding of humanity.

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!

Maybe it's because I was an only child, but I've always wanted kids.

I had parents who were working actors, who did really well in their careers, but it was a living. So it was a reality for me growing up; it wasn't a fantasy. It wasn't sitting there going, "I want to be adored." It wasn't that at all. Not to say that the screams of fans aren't a smile-raiser, but that was never the pull for me.

I've seen and swam and climbed and lived and driven and filmed. Should it all end tomorrow, I can definitely say there would be no regrets. I am very lucky, and I know it. I really have lived 5,000 times over.

Any irrational fears?no, i'm quite a rationalist. i'm not superstitious, i think life is too full of natural wonders and logical complexities to worry about illogical things.

People's hands fascinate me. It's tempting to look at a businessman's left hand and see if there's an indentation from a missing wedding ring. Or maybe there's a tan line and the skin is pressed down where's he's worked a ring off his finger.

I was thrilled with how the first series of 'Sherlock' was received. It was such great fun to film, which makes it so rewarding when something you enjoy is so well received.

I'm not loyal to one genre. I want to mix it up.

The generation now below me were born into a world where if you're a kid with raw talent now, you can roll in and land a lead in a Scorsese film. You don't have to have prove yourself by working up the ranks, doing the classics, and getting the canon under your belt in the way the great Sirs and Dames of mom and dad's generation - the [Ben] Kingsleys and [Helen] Mirrens and [Anthony] Hopkinses and people of that ilk.

There are moments when you can get completely and utterly blocked (by fear). When you start a rehearsal process or say yes to a job, you're jumping in the air. By the time you've landed, you go, 'I've got to do this. I've actually got to make this work.

People are being beheaded in countries right now because of their beliefs or sexual orientation. It's terrifying. It's medieval. I'd take up arms against someone who was telling me I had to believe in what they believed or they'd kill me.

When you see a good horseman, you're unable to tell where the instruction is coming from. It's like telepathy.

I was brought up in a world of privilege.

The world of 'Sherlock Holmes' and the world that we live in now is big enough to take more than one interpretation.

What a tragic waste o engagement (selfies). Enjoy the moment. Do something more worthwhile with your time, anything. Stare out the window and think about life.

The number of people my age, younger now, a whole generation younger, who are fiercely bright, over-educated, under-employed and who are politicised and purposeless really upsets me. It's soul-destroying.

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 was happy as an only child, but I've always wanted to be part of a bigger family.

It's great for the people who supported me early on to see the success I'm enjoying.

Someone will always hate what I say. There's always going to be somebody spitting blood about my wooden-faced, toffee-named, crappy acting.

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

I struggle to learn by rote. I've had meltdowns on set. Which is embarrassing and shameful.

I did a lot of acting at school and university, then I went to drama school. It was quite a normal route.

I wasn't born into land or titles, or new money, or an oil rig.

Any privacy in public is a hard thing to negotiate.

I want to do it all. I want to climb mountains, go through jungles, fight wars in space, get the girl, shoot the bad-guy full of lead, have all the zippy one liners, bulge muscles out of a singlet, drip sweat and blood on screen, all of that.

I wish my 15-year-old self had known about my allure to the opposite sex!

Live Life Less Ordinary

What makes a good animated movie is being able to balance adult and knowing in-jokes and also just out and out funny things that make all people laugh. The idea that it's actually something that will appeal to a family, that's the trick.

I drag a lot of stuff round with me that I don't need.

Our daily lives are so mundane, we get taken over by what is immediately in front of us and we don't see beyond that.

Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame.

It's always important to have the blessing.

As an actor, you are aware of how a role can seep into your real life.

You have to sometimes just run with the problem rather than trying to solve it with hi-tech wizardry and lots of planning.

I'm not confident in social situations; just going up to someone in a bar and saying 'Hi' is going to be even more difficult because they won't know the real me. They will just know me as a fictional person I play on the screen.

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

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.

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!

The first time we did cavalry charge I was so breathless with excitement I nearly fell off the horse. I actually saw stars in front of my eyes and thought I was going to faint. The second time I had a bit more control but was still giddy with excitement. And the third time I was an emotional wreck. I had to really try hard not to cry.

If you have an over-preoccupation with perception and trying to please people's expectations, then you can go mad.

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.

Every job is incredibly different, and I love it because you're picking up skill sets and experiences. It's the university of life.

I've gone up two suit sizes. The character I'm playing, he's strong, I can say that much. I've changed my physique a bit, so that requires eating like a foie gras goose, well beyond your appetite. Providing I don't feel too ill, I then work out two hours a day with a phenomenal trainer. It's the LA way.

I'm aware of the power of looks. I've wanted to play roles that have gone to much better-looking people and you just think 'Oh well, that's the pin up guy's an actor like my friend James Mcavoy, who's gorgeous on screen. I'm not that. But at least I don't have to worry about taking precious care of my face because it's my commodity. That's a great freedom. I'm not afraid of being heinous for the sake of a part

I have memories of clouds whisking by while sitting in the pushchair on the roof of my parents' flat. I loved it! I just loved staring at the clouds and dreaming away.

My own grandfathers were a submarine commander and a 'desert rats' tank operator in the Second World War.

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

To get a horse to hit a mark without a rider, to get it to stand up, to get it to rear, to get it to pick up a bucket and bring it over is amazing. It's hard work and very rewarding but can be dangerous.

All the backstories are there but not talked about.

I love doing impersonations of people.

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.

Lines are very difficult to learn.

When auditioning, I try to imagine that I'm the only person that they [directors] are seeing that day because it can be overwhelming, in the same sense that it could be overwhelming if you try to fulfil everyone's expectations rather than the people closest to you in the creative process, be it your director, or fellow actors and the writers. So, that's kind of it - I try to trick myself into believing that no one has ever gone there before.

I can't think of a wittier or even accurate comparison (Sherlock Holmes' hair), but I just think it makes me look a bit like a woman.

You come into this world as you leave it, on your own. It's made me want to live a life slightly less ordinary.

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

There's a huge raft of roles that actors in our culture perform, and you can see any one of about three Hamlets in a year. It's not something to be completely daunted by.

I think what I loved in cinema - and what I mean by cinema is not just films, but proper, classical cinema - are the extraordinary moments that can occur on screen. At the same time, I do feel that cinema and theater feed each other. I feel like you can do close-up on stage and you can do something very bold and highly characterized - and, dare I say, theatrical - on camera. I think the cameras and the viewpoints shift depending on the intensity and integrity of your intention and focus on that.

I've been very lucky at what's happened in my career to date, but playing something as far from me as possible is an ambition of mine - anything from a mutated baddy in a comic book action thriller, to a detective. If anything, I'd like Gary Oldman's career: he's the perfect example of it. I've love to have a really broad sweep of characters - to be able to do something edgy, surprising and unfashionable.

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

I play enough other mad people, as well and some sane people, to vary the palette of what's scrabbling around in my head and soul to bring to the floor, as a storyteller.

Do awards change careers? Well, I haven't heard of many stories where that's the case. It's a fun excuse to meet colleagues and celebrate people who've done well that year in certain people's eyes, and it's nothing more than that.

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.

Having your adolescence at an all-male boarding school is just crap.

There are moments when, like all of us, you get a bit self-conscious and you'd rather not be living any of your day in public. Those are the awkward times, but you've got to have fun with it.

My first, big, silly role at school was as Arthur Crocker-Harris in Rattigan's 'The Browning Version,' where my job was to make school-masters' wives weep with recognition.

'Benedict' means 'blessed.' My parents liked the sound of the name and felt slightly blessed because they'd been trying for a child for a very long time.

I have actual acting scars.

'Sherlock' fans are, by and large, an intelligent breed, so they've gone through my back catalogue and got what I've done, why and how I've done it. There is some obsessive behaviour, but I worry for them rather than me.

Being on set is quite difficult, because it's so big and you've got to try and relax, which isn't easy when you know you're in a massive film. I was terrified for quite a long time.

It is a wonderful thing to get married young and become a father.

Upper class to me means you are either born into wealth or you're Royalty.

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'm not an overnight success. I've been doing it for 12 years. It's been lovely and varied so far.

When are you ever settled enough to have kids?

You can't imagine fame. You can only ever see it from an outsider and comment on it with the rueful wisdom of a non participant. When it happens to you, it doesn't matter what age or how, it is a very steep learning curve. The imprtanot thing to realize in all of it is that life is short, to protect the ones you love, and not expose yourself to too much abuse or narcissistic reflection gazing and move on. If fame affords me the type of ability to do the kind of work I'm being offered, who am I to complain about the downsides. It's all relative. And this are obviously very high class problems. The way privacy becomes an every shrinking island is inevitable but also manageable and it doesn't necessary have to get that way ...

I like to think that we're revolving on this planet and revolving through the galaxy. I love having context that's so much bigger than I can fathom. It's fantastic to realise how insignificant you are.

I've turned up to costume parties in the wrong costume. I've made social faux pas a plenty. I've put one foot in front of the other and fallen over.

I drive a motorbike, so there is the whiff of the grim reaper round every corner, especially in London.

There was a moment of extraordinary humbleness and humility and pride, as well, with my father when he turned to me - and I think it was after I played Salieri in "Amadeus" at university. And he said, You're better than I ever was or ever could be, you should do this for profession. You'd have a good time.

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.

My first agent dissuaded me from calling myself 'Cumberbatch.' I had six months of not very productive time with her, so I changed agents. The new one said, 'Why aren't you using your family name? It's a real attention-grabber.' I worried, 'How much is it going to cost to put my name in lights?' But then I decided that's not my problem.

Live a life less ordinary.

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

Pull the hair on my head the wrong way, and I would be on my knees begging for mercy. I have very sensitive follicles.