Top 50 Phoebe Waller-Bridge Quotes

I’m a massive control freak.

I think, a lot of time, I’m just writing my worst fears, of the idea of losing my mom or my best friend or doing something so terrible to somebody that’s kind of deemed unforgivable or having a really broken family.

What’s so useful about the British culture of politeness is the level of passive aggression is really fun to write.

Every time I see the rails of my photo shoots, it’s like Dr. Seuss, or as if they’ve skinned Muppets.

It will always be relevant and always be inspiring to see somebody turning themselves into a warrior.

I really desperately want to write and direct my own movie.

The element of surprise is the most important thing and what keeps me interested in writing. I can feel it if I’ve written that predictable or boring line, and I will carry that around with me all day.

Nothing brings me more joy than when people love what I do.

I don’t think you can be a good actor and want to please, because so much about performing and acting is surprising people.

The main relationship in the whole series was the one between the camera and Fleabag. I had to convince myself that whoever was watching on the other side of the camera was instantly complicit with Fleabag and instantly a friend of hers.

The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have been a roar on behalf of women, and the voices are genuinely empowered now. I really feel that.

If you go into the mainstream with a female perspective that seems to resonate with a lot of people, you have a political agenda imposed on you: you are told that you are a feminist.

This world of ‘Star Wars‘ is just so accepting and beautiful that the idea a droid and a human are trying to waddle their way into a relationship is something that’s celebrated.

No one would touch me with a barge pole as an actress. It hit hard. I thought, ‘What am I doing? This is a stupid idea!’ It’s like throwing yourself into a massive pond, and you feel like you’re going to drown so quickly.

Fleabag knows men and women are equal and should be treated as such, but what she‘s confused about – and what I was confused about – was the idea that wanting bigger boobs doesn’t mean you don’t want equal rights.

People generally are just really nice to each other. You know, the good people.

The idea of losing your best friend, basically, is the worst thing in world.

Sausages are just funny. I don’t know why. I can’t explain it.

Whenever I get stuck on something, I’m like, ‘What would I do if I wasn’t afraid? What would I write if I wasn’t afraid? What would I say in this situation if I wasn’t afraid?’

I think it helped that ‘Fleabag’ had such a dramatic arc to it, even though it was disguised as a comedy.

You’re allowed to bore your friends and family, but to bore your audience is unforgivable.

I think it’s important that culture is this ongoing thing that needs to be nurtured, because there is no such thing as a quick, arty fix.

I really, really wanted to write about just female relationships with other females and things.

I’ll never get bored of seeing flawed women on the screen.

‘Transparent‘ was huge for me when I first saw it. I felt that, from an authorial point of view, no one was trying to sell characters to us, you know? It’s the idea of not having to adore these characters and want to cuddle them; you just have to be into them and their psychology and be compelled by them.

I’d go so far as to say I was bullied into writing, but sometimes you need that.

As women, we get the message about how to be a good girl – how to be a good, pretty girl – from such an early age. Then, at the same time, we’re told that well-behaved girls won‘t change the world or ever make a splash.

I’d been waiting to turn thirty my whole life. For some reason, when I was eleven, I was like, ‘I know thirty’s going to be good. Get through those twenties!’

There’s nothing that makes me cry and laugh more than stories about friendship.

I just find all that stuff incredibly funny. I love a fart. I’d do anything for a good poo story.

I’m obsessed with audiences and obsessed with the journey that an audience goes on.

People are always trying to be on top. And not always with a macabre agenda, but I think that people are desperately trying to remain in control, rather than being honest.

I always knew that saying the unsayable was going to be a powerful thing.

I don’t think there’s an actor in the world who ever expects to get a call from the ‘Star Wars’ casting director – least of all me.

If you hear somebody say something absolutely horrendous about their own life, in quite a flippant, offbeat kind of way, when you meet people clearly trying to be strong and brave, the ones who are really good at it are the ones who break my heart the most.

However much people want to politicize every movement of a controversial woman in life or on the screen, we just have to keep being personal and truthful, or we will explode.

Throughout a lot of my 20s, my sexual allure and power was one of the most important things about me, my currency.

I think it’s part of human nature, that we want to achieve. It’s definitely a kind of cosmopolitan nature, wanting to achieve in the fast lane.

When an audience is laughing with a character, they make themselves so vulnerable, and they open up. They expose their heart the moment they’re laughing, because they’re relaxed and they’re disarmed.

Our family dinner table was my first platform – every dinner was all about sharing stories and jokes and points of view.

There’s something very polite about the British accents. It’s sort of sanitizing.

I change my mind every five minutes. I’m very brutal with my own process. I throw everything away very quickly, and then I have to go out and rummage through the rubbish in the middle of the night to try to find a bit I’d written a week ago.

Women know what they’re doing all the time, and they’re pretending that they don’t.

I’d like to think Fleabag’s honesty makes her heroic in spite of her actions.

I can’t deny ‘Fleabag”s a very personal piece, but it’s not autobiographical.

I’m just constantly on the verge of bursting into tears with joy.

I just love any kind of language that can change the energy in a room. There are no limits for me, as long as it feels like it’s being used in a particular way to garner or elicit a very particular reaction so that you can then use that reaction later for something else.

So much TV is drawn out.

I just kind of like to feel myself into stuff by writing scenes and seeing what characters end up saying.

Every single performance of ‘Fleabag,’ I would learn so much from the audience reaction or how you could change it all the time, and I loved that sense that the performance is ever-growing and changing and could be affected by the audience.