Quotes By Helena Bonham Carter

I liked pretending to be other people: I could reinvent myself, reinvent my own reality.

With the number of people I ignore, I'm lucky I work at all in this town.

No, I can never rely on Tim to make me pretty.

My mom being a psychotherapist, I've been brought up with that whole psychoanalytical terrain.

Most of my relationships were people in the business. Having said that, me and Tim don't really talk that much about work. He comes into my bit of the house every so often to vent but we don't really have very high, cultured conversations.

I've never had white teeth. To be honest, I've never been told to do any of those horrible things - get your teeth whitened or your nose straightened.

I think my mouth just opens and I spontaneously say things that occur to me.

Famous people come up to me, but I don't know who they are because my sight is so bad. It's always at the pool of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills when I don't have my lenses in and my glasses are in my room.

It took me ages to grow into being a woman, into being happy with it.

It didn't matter what you look like. You don't have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and there's a lot to be said for that. Corpse Bride can just play all my parts from now on and I'll just do the voice.

Usually I'm frustrated when I look at my films and I don't believe that I've made a real transformation beyond my usual sets of gestures and expressions. I still have this nagging feeling that it's me, that I didn't create a unique character.

I just do things because I fancy the parts and the directors.

I'm always attracted to lower budget, not because it's lower budget, but because they tend to be better scripts.

I was a mixture of being incredibly old for my age and incredibly backwards. I was born quite old, but then I stopped growing. I lived with my mum and dad till I was 30.

You can't ever put your self-definition in the hands of somebody who meets you for 15 minutes.

When I was young I had so many inferiority complexes. I had an inferiority complex because I didn't go to university. I had an inferiority complex because I didn't train. Then it gets tiring. And you do get bored of it.

I love changing what I look like because I always feel super strange whenever I do watch something that I'm in.

A film actor is just a victim of directors and editors.

I hate this image of me as a prim Edwardian. I want to shock everyone.

I was reading William Shawcross's biography of the Queen Mother, dressed in my witch outfit! And you know what? It was a really good mix; it was a therapeutic mix.

I remember I did think, 'Wouldn't it be nice if Mr. Right moved in next door?'

Multitasking? I can't even do two things at once. I can't even do one thing at once.

The animators are absolutely extraordinary. It's mind-boggling.

Tim also has enough confidence so that it always looks like a Tim Burton film, but it really is collaborative. You're allowed to do it your way but of course he's always going to choose his way.

I'm not dead and I don't have blue hair but some people say there are similarities. It is usually intolerable to watch myself onscreen but this time it's fine. I think it's beautiful and a real work of art.

My father fell really chronically ill when I was 13 and that's when I phoned up an agent and started to act.

I have to struggle to change people's perceptions of me. I grew very frustrated with the perception that I'm this shy, retiring, inhibited aristocratic creature when I'm absolutely not like that at all. I think I'm much more outgoing and exuberant than my image.

Because I sleep with him he asked me to audition, you know?

I think I've still got a bit of a sado-masochistic streak in me, because if I'm not going to be restricted by corsets and covered in lace, then I still wind up wearing an ape-mask over my face. I do wonder how I get myself in these situations!

It's different when you're an actor and playing a part, but when it's just you, you feel immensely vulnerable have strangers prodding and prying.