Quotes from Ben Whishaw

I would have loved to have been a painter or a sculptor. I'm still fascinated by those things.

I think the sensation of being moved by a piece of art is something that is really good for a person's soul.

I find it really hard to say anything coherent or interesting about the work I do.

The criminal justice system, like any system designed by human beings, clearly has its flaws.

I'm a fairly private person.

I'd like to have a go at directing.

Your one certainty in life, your power as a human being, is that you have a choice in every situation about what you do next and about how you take what has happened to you.

It's fun to pretend you're good at something you know you wouldn't be good at in real life.

One of the things I find very difficult about theatre is the repetition - that something can slide away from your original intentions.

The thing about acting is that it's fairly random. At the end of the day you take what drifts past you or what's given to you.

I used to collect knick-knacks, like wizards, trolls and little buddhas, and arrange them like precious things on a shelf.

What I notice about people who are gifted in filmmaking is that they're great thinkers. They engage with big ideas and they engage with people.

I've gone on workout regimes, but I seem to have a system that is very resistant to changing.

I don't think anyone can walk through the world in a state of vulnerability all the time, can they?

I think that sometimes in theater, I don't prepare much beyond going to the rehearsals.

I'm really hopeless with technology - I don't even have a computer.

The thing I love most about acting is that your capacity evolves as you evolve as a human being.

Filmmakers tell stories to explore human nature, which is always a flawed thing.

I'm not tortured and neurasthenic - I'm really not.

I love films. I love music. I love poetry and stories. All of that I feel… I sort of get very excited and fed by.

I was quite a shy child - not chronically, but I tended to blend into the background.

We are so mired in the complexity of our reactions to other people that when you come across someone who is asocial, there is a simplicity that is refreshing.

I think I have a degree of confidence, but I also have terrible insecurity, like anybody does.

My intuition comes up with better stuff than my head, I think.