Top 282 Quotes & Sayings by Benedict Cumberbatch - Page 2

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

I love theatre, and you learn too much as an actor and enjoy too much of it not to want to go back a lot.

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

I was always performing, doing silly voices. The teachers realized I could go one of two ways: be creative or destructive.

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

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

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'll always do 'Sherlock' - it's something I'm not going to give up on.

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

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!

When you start getting jobs, and see your mates from drama school, you don't really want to talk about it, because you have this innate sense of guilt that it's not fair that others aren't doing exactly what you're doing. I do have that.

I never was obsessive about anything I watched when I was a kid, except maybe 'The A-Team' and 'Airwolf'... And I loved 'Knight Rider' and then later 'Baywatch.'

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

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

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

Metaphorically speaking, it's easy to bump into one another on the journey from A to B and not even notice. People should take time to notice, enjoy and help each other.

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

'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.

The more charming person is the person who admits the other person is more charming.

I am a PR disaster because I talk too much.

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.

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

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.

I've been broody since I was 12, but I can't just get anyone pregnant. It has got to be the right person.

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

When you're a kid, 'Star Trek' is a slower burn. It's funny, it's entertaining, but it also has a maturity about it - which is its universal appeal, I think.

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

I'm interested in art for all. I don't want it to be only the sons and daughters of Tory MPs who get to see my plays.

When are you ever settled enough to have kids?

I think I've had very knee-jerk emotional reactions to things, and sometimes I've said things without thinking. Being overly emotional clouded my judgment.

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

It's always important to have the blessing.

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.

Looking for happiness is a sure way to sadness, I think. You have to take each moment as it comes.

I'm sort of focused on my long-term goal of carving out a career that's for life, rather than being a flash in the pan.

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 have a lot more unlikely heroes now. It’s not just the guy with guns—it’s the guy with brains.

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 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.

All the backstories are there but not talked about.

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

That's something I have to work on: to separate what really matters, to conserve energy by not worrying about what other people think.

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

I keep myself amused and others confused

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.

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.

Cumberbatch - it sounds like a fart in a bath, doesn't it? What a fluffy old name. I can never say it on a Monday morning. When I became an actor, Mum wasn't keen on me keeping it.

Not that i had a big arse but even that was toned.

We should have a conversation when we hang up.

I thought, well, why am I giving up on my primary dream to work doubly hard, to do something as an alternative to what it really still want to?

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.

People always want to knock you when you're up.

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

I tend to have a cup of tea, try to stop worrying about what I did wrong, cool down and will the audience back in as soon as possible.

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.

We look at science as the ultimate answer for everything yet we are really messy organisms and when the two collide in the upper echelons of medicine you think science will prevail but it's not always that way.

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.

If you can't fail, you can never get better.

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

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.