Keira Knightley Quotations

Film is a much lonelier process than theatre. You really don't have any rehearsal time in film. You don't shape it together... with theatre, there is a complete kind of family atmosphere. The sociable side of this business is the theatrical side, it really isn't the film side.

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.

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

You already feel unsure of yourself, and then you see your worst fears in print. It really knocked me - which is why, I think, I was working, working, working, because I was trying to run away from the fact that I thought I couldn't do it.

I don't think that you can fake warmth. You can fake lust, jealousy, anger; those are all quite easy. But actual, genuine warmth? I don't think you can fake it.

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

It's not everyday you get to do a pirate movie, you might as well go for it.

It's good to know that other people think differently, and that's what makes the characters interesting.

If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything.

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

I think every girl is looking for her Mr. Darcy.

I am a slow reader. I always loved words, which is a strange thing given that I couldn't actually read them

I started working when I was seven, and ever since then I've been saving for an apartment. Even before that I had a little jam jar designated for my apartment money.

I find more interesting roles for women in period pieces. I do personally like watching period films; I think you can really get lost in the fantasy of them.

I really believe that in this industry women have to be very true to themselves about what they're comfortable with.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I made a conscious decision to live my life the best way I could and that meant to publicise myself as little as possible.

I'm doing a film now with a lot of guys as well, so at the end of that I will be growing a beard.

But acting is very much a profession that is you're hot one moment and not the next - and that is totally cool. I think that's what I find most fascinating and most exciting about it - is that it can be gone in a puff of smoke.

It's fantastic to have the opportunity to work abroad, and do all that, but there is a certain point where you're just like, 'Oh, I'd love to work at home.'

It's impossible. You try to have any kind of relationship with your family, with a man, or with a friend, and you have to be on the phone and the Internet the entire time.

I didn't know this about myself, but when 'Pirates of the Caribbean' came out I realised that I didn't enjoy a huge amount of recognition. I didn't react to it well, but I think life is about finding out who you are and what you like. So I started doing independent movies and art-house films instead.

I don't have a problem with my body. I'm not just going to strip off all my clothing, but if the part calls for it and I don't think there's any way round, I'm absolutely fine.

I tried college for three months but I was desperately unhappy. I just wanted to perform. I was getting straight As but I had no friends and cried every day.

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.

What's nice about playing somebody real is that generally there's more information about them, so a lot of the questions that you'd otherwise have to make up the answers to are already there.

I think everybody has the right to a private life.

It's an interesting thing when you discover something about yourself. To go: 'Wow, I'm not the person I thought I was. I'm in the middle of something and I can't actually deal with it.'

I always find it much easier when there's one person whose vision you're following, as opposed to many people.

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

I find it quite difficult on studio films because there are so many different executives and things like that that you have to go through, so very often getting that definitive opinion is actually quite difficult.

I wasn't allowed to do commercials. I wasn't allowed to do TV series. I wasn't allowed to do soaps or basically anything that would mean I missed too much school.

I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but I don't think I've completely made it.

I was terrified of taking on such a well-known character - to the point where I didn't want to do it. But my agent persuaded me and I'm very glad she did.

She really thought what she and Jamie had was love, but it just wasn't meant to be.

I have just seen George Clooney outside and thought that was quite cool.

(I am) really proud to have been asked to work with such an iconic house as Chanel, and thrilled to follow the extraordinary women who have been associated with it before.

He was completely amazing, ... He did love having six women around him all the time. We took him to a party one night but he was wearing a mask, because he can't be around cigarettes but felt anyone who wanted to smoke could, so he came with a little mask he wore.

History was always my favorite subject anyway, and I love reading, kind of, biographies and that sort of stuff.

I'm so embarrassed about anyone going in that room.

I thought, God, it's a strong person who says, 'Yes, you can take my name and you can do with it what you want,' ... I wanted to create a character who would be able to say that, because I know that I wouldn't.

I know acting is a profession where one minute, you're hot and the next minute, it can all go away,

In this business, fame lasts for a second. You can be blown up and be blown down. People keep losing interest in faces because new ones come along every single second. I'm one at the moment. Tomorrow I won't be. That's cool. I'm not saying that when it does end, I'll be like, 'Yay! It's ending.' But I'll move on and do something else because that's what has to be done. It's about survival. If you're sad about it, then you're in the wrong job.

All of us can do something to support this fantastic work and it will make a real difference.

I wanted to put up a 'Do Not Disturb' sign because I was so embarrassed about anyone going in.

It's brilliant that this dress has raised this much.

It's brilliant that this dress has raised this much. I know it will go a long way to help the people facing this food crisis in East Africa.

I don't know, I don't know him. He's very good looking though.

They were really great, they were sweet guys, ... Very respectful, great to my mum, had good conversations; they'd explain all their different tattoos to her. And it was a hard scene for me to do because it was the first week of filming and, regardless of whether he was in a gang or not, I had to give this guy a lap dance. But they were really, really nice to me.

For me it is a story about growing up, making mistakes and falling in love and I think that's as relevant today as it was 200 years ago.

We had the Bennet giggle. It's a high-pitched, screaming, chaotic monkey-like giggle that would get us into it. Joe wanted us to always speak over each other so you got the feeling of people who are so used to each other, they don't even listen anymore. I do think it will make it more accessible.

They have made me look a total babe on the front

They're all fab and they tell me when I'm acting up and laugh at me as much as possible, which is important.

I feel immediately at home in New York or Washington. That's fantastic. But, it takes a lot of getting used to being a Londoner, coming to L.A. So, it was strange. It took me about a month to sort of settle down. Then, I really liked it.

I can't actually walk, but I can stand rather well.

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 see a pair of shoes I adore, and it doesn't matter if they have them in my size. I buy them anyway.

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?

I find it difficult to see the romance in digital.

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

I think that there's absolutely no point trying to force your body to be anything than what it is. I think that when you see people who are really pushing themselves to terrifying lengths to achieve what is perceived as being beautiful today, then that's just terrifying, it's really terrifying.

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.

Empathy is the main thing, putting yourself in somebody else's shoes and trying not to judge.

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.

The whole point for me is to change as much as possible. If I've done one movie, I've done that, move on.

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.

Beauty is everywhere. And my photography came naturally without any particular inspirations growing up.

You have to learn the rules to be able to know how to break them.

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

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.

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.

The celebrity thing's completely crazy. I think I just have to move away or give it up altogether. I couldn't have kids in the situation I'm in now. But I could just do something else. That's probably what's going to happen. I made a decision very recently that I want a life instead.

I don't want to deny my femininity. But would I want to be a stay-at-home mother? No. On the other hand, you should be allowed to do that, as should men, without being sneered at.

They always pencil in my boobs. I was only angry when they were really droopy... For King Arthur, for a poster, they gave me these really strange droopy tits. I thought, well if you're going to make me fantasy breasts, at least make perky breasts.

I think it doesn't matter where you're from, we all need a bit of romance.

I've always gravitated towards people who are extreme. Whether its drugs, or kicking down doors. Normally, the people in my life had to escape to get back.

I went through voice coaching. I was absolutely terrified. I thought my knees were going to buckle, and the first couple of takes I sounded like a pubescent boy. I didn't realise I was going to have to do it live.

It's very rare to get a film script that has good dialogue. A lot of the time, you spend on film sets really fighting to find out how to say the words.

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

Nice is the worst word.

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.

Prince William definitely isn't my type, he's too horsey-looking.

A lot of times in cinema today the women are overly sentimental, so I constantly try to do the opposite. I like strident women.

I totally agree. I hate knowing too much when I'm going to the cinema and watching as a viewer. I don't want to know that the actor has just gone through a divorce. I don't want to know that the person is an alcoholic. It just gets in the way of my pleasure of watching the character on the screen.

I've got a lot of experience with anorexia - my grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it, and I had a lot of friends at school who suffered from it. I know it's not something to be taken lightly and I don't.

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?

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.

I wish I was Sienna Miller. When I talk to her, I hope a bit of her party personality will rub off on me, but it never does.

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

Bigger films are more difficult because the number of people is so huge.

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.

The thing I love about acting is getting to change and look at different people in different lives and do different projects.

[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.

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.

The most important thing in playing any character is not judging.

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