Your favourite DT quote? (can be from a show/whatever)
I might need a solid 7-10 business days to come up with an answer to this.
Part of me wants to choose a David quote, because he has such a lovely way with words, not to mention a great vocabulary, and the way he speaks is very individual to him as a person.
The way he talks about Shakespeare makes me feel seen as a life-long fan of those plays, both in appreciating the beauty of the words and in analyzing the psychology of human nature. And I think the way he talks about Doctor Who shows you without a doubt what his true nature is like: that he is someone who values and strives for kindness, and justice, and truth, and love above any selfish human vice. Whether he's driven by guilt or not, I think that's very commendable, to always choose the high road because it's what's right, not what's easy.
I realize I'm getting into a very long-winded answer to a very simple question that I'm not even sure I can answer but - what do you expect 😅 one must thoroughly dissect their thoughts, right?
Quotes that come to mind in fiction are things like "it makes me ashamed to be a man" (Broadchurch s3) which I think is memorable because of how honest it was, and it's ofc not something that the average man would ever say out loud. It was almost shocking in its honesty: the idea that men should admit to feeling ashamed to be associated with bad men rather than be angry at women for pointing out a problem that they refuse to be associated with was very surprising to me when I first heard him say it, and upon rewatch it hits just as hard.
But I don't think I'd consider that my favourite DT quote. Even Tenth Doctor quotes, while memorable and awesome and infinitely associated with him as an actor, don't feel particularly David to me. Anything he says in fiction is a result of the words that other people thought up and wrote down. They are not his own thoughts and feelings, his own truth, or his own words, even if he did agree with the sentiment.
Perhaps, then, something that David has said that is altogether honest, and humanizing, and real in its admittance of imperfection: something that normalizes falling short despite good intentions without shaming, or anger, only a genuine desire to do better. Something that has also made me feel too clearly seen and at the same time encouraged to be better with one kind, gentle reprimand (just as he reprimands himself in saying it):
"I'm a good person, I hope. But I'm never as good as I want to be, never as nice as I want to be, never as generous as I want to be."
