It's difficult because nothing's preordained by plan and you can't control it. That's one of those joys and thrills and nerve-racking realities of being an actor. A lot has to do with luck, no matter what your talent or contribution can be.
— Benedict Cumberbatch
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 been broody since I was 12, but I can't just get anyone pregnant. It has got to be the right person.
The world of 'Sherlock Holmes' and the world that we live in now is big enough to take more than one interpretation.
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.
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.
I'm quite sensitive to people noticing me. There are times when I'm relaxed, then others when it does make me self-conscious.
I am a PR disaster because I talk too much.
It is a wonderful thing to get married young and become a father.
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.
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.'
'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.
When you freefall for 7,000 feet it doesn't feel like you're falling: it feels like you're floating, a bit like scuba diving.
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 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'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.
When you see a good horseman, you're unable to tell where the instruction is coming from. It's like telepathy.
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.
I have an appetite for the normal in my life, as well as the abnormal.
I struggle to learn by rote. I've had meltdowns on set. Which is embarrassing and shameful.
If I'd had fame early on, I'd have been able to abuse it in the way that a young man should.
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.
Live a life less ordinary.
I wish my 15-year-old self had known about my allure to the opposite sex!
Mystique is rare now, isn't it? There aren't that many enigmas in this modern world.
Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame.
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.
New York City is crazy and beautiful and really close to my heart, and I've always had dear friends here - family, actually, I would say.
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 wasn't born into land or titles, or new money, or an oil rig.
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.
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'll always do 'Sherlock' - it's something I'm not going to give up on.
It does get strange when you realize people will hang around for hours to get a glimpse of you doing scenes outside.
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.
I was always performing, doing silly voices. The teachers realized I could go one of two ways: be creative or destructive.
There's no shame in stealing - any actor who says he doesn't is lying. You steal from everything.
There's so much in the 21st century that is stymied by bureaucracy and mediocrity and committee.
When are you ever settled enough to have kids?
The more charming person is the person who admits the other person is more charming.
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.
Landing the role of Stephen Hawking was the most positively surprising thing that has happened to me.
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 did a lot of acting at school and university, then I went to drama school. It was quite a normal route.
I had a real yearning to make use of the opportunities I had at school. When I heard about the gap year of teaching English at a Tibetan monastery, I knew I had to do something about it really quickly, otherwise it was going to get allocated.
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.
'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.
Mum did a lot of commercial theatre and farces in the 1980s and '90s to make sure the school bills were paid.
I was happy as an only child, but I've always wanted to be part of a bigger family.
