That's what makes characters interesting. If Sherlock [Holmes] had started out being a straightforward man, we wouldn't be talking about him now. If he became one, that would be interesting. But you have to give him somewhere to go, as [Conan] Doyle did.

Mark Gatiss

Categorized in : Men Character Talking

They are called 'Emos' now, and before that they were 'Goths.' They didn't have a name for it when I was one, but I was that black-wearing teenager and yes, I wore a little eyeliner.

Mark Gatiss

emo teenager names

You can always expect tragedy as well as adventure; that's just how it goes.

Mark Gatiss

wells tragedy adventure

I imagine John Watson thinks love’s a mystery to me, but the chemistry is incredibly simple and very destructive. When we first met, you told me that a disguise is always a self portrait, how true of you, the combination to your safe – your measurements. But this is far more intimate. This is your heart, and you should never let it rule your head. You could have chosen any random number and walked out of here today with everything you worked for. But you just couldn’t resist it, could you? I’ve always assumed that love is a dangerous disadvantage. Thank you for the final proof.

Mark Gatiss

simple heart thinking

It's a cliche, but it's true that all the fun lies in baddies, grotesques and comic roles.

Mark Gatiss

roles fun lying

I prefer sneaking in the back door.

Mark Gatiss

back-doors doors

Fear is an underrated emotion. And that's why I think it's very dangerous to try and cosset children from it. A healthy scare is as good as as a healthy laugh. In fact, they're two sides of the same coin. There is a desire to shield from the knocks and bumps of reality.

Mark Gatiss

children reality thinking

I grew up with low self-esteem. I didn't think I was very pretty. I had glasses, red hair and was generally quite a spod.

Mark Gatiss

glasses self-esteem thinking

When I was your age — about, ooh, a thousand years ago — I loved a good bedtime story. The Three Little Sontarans. The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes. Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, eh? All the classics.

Mark Gatiss

keys white years

If not exactly raging against the dying of the light, I was at least a little cross with it.

Mark Gatiss

light dying littles

The question I ask myself is: have I really just become a squeamish middle-aged man, or has something happened to the horror genre that shows a growing appetite for watching torture, or at least a desire to explore it on film? And if so, why would that be? I can't pretend I know. I just know I don't like it.

Mark Gatiss

horror-genre desire men

I always compare reading anything on the Internet to listening at doors. If you don't want to hear anything bad about yourself, you should never do it.

Mark Gatiss

reading listening doors

Some facts in life are immutable. One is, trust no-one who uses the word 'trope'.

Mark Gatiss

trust-no-one use facts

I'm an actor and a writer, that's how I think of myself. Sometimes my time is divided equally, sometimes less equally, but that's what I do.

Mark Gatiss

actors sometimes thinking

I'm a great believer in the beauty and the power of surprise.

Mark Gatiss

believer surprise

I used to go to the gym regularly and swim an awful lot, but that was when I was unemployed and knew leisure intimately.

Mark Gatiss

leisure awful swim

One man's fish is another man's poisson.

Mark Gatiss

another-man fishes men

Benedict is bumbly, sweet, affable; the nicest man you've met.

Mark Gatiss

mets sweet men

Europe is so much the home of Horror, with its myths of vampires, werewolves, witchcraft and the undead, yet it's like those myths were exported to Hollywood, leaving Europe the room to develop a new tradition as a way of processing its traumas, particularly the two world wars.

Mark Gatiss

home europe war

When I was seven or eight, I was bought a fantastic book called 'The Movie Treasury of Horror Movies' by Alan G. Frank; it became my bible. It's packed full of the most amazing photos and is still fantastic to look at.

Mark Gatiss

eight book looks

All films speak to their times. It becomes obvious only after.

Mark Gatiss

obvious film speak