Quotes

[from his acceptance speech at the '87th Academy Awards'] When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself. Because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong. And now I'm standing here. And so I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she's weird or she's different or she doesn't fit in anywhere. Yes, you do! I promise, you do! Stay weird. Stay different, and then when it's your turn and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message along.[2015]

I had been this huge computer nerd my entire life. I went to space camp and computer programming camp. I was that kid. From a very young age, I knew about the legend of Alan Turing - among awkward, nerdy teenagers, he is a patron saint. He never fit in, but accomplished these wonderful things, as part of a secret queer history of computer science. And so I always dreamt of writing something about him, and I thought that there had never been a proper narrative treatment of his life, that he deserved. I by chance met the producers of the film at a party, and one of them told me they had optioned a biography. When I asked who it was, they said, 'it's a mathematician that you've never heard of.' When they told me it was Alan Turing, I almost tackled them, and I told them I'd do anything to write this film, I'd write it for free. It was all about luck and passion. That is how it started, and I felt that everyone else involved was just as committed to the story.

[on The Imitation Game (2014)] What is amazing about the story is that the most fantastic things that occur, that people most don't believe, are absolutely true - like the Soviet mole that they allowed to operate within British war intelligence - that was all true. (...) We condensed the timeline, essentially. The process of breaking the code was enormously complicated in real life. So one of things we wanted to do was open up Turing's story to the audience and make a film about these complicated topics, but at the same time create a narrative that the audience understands, without insulting their intelligence. But on a broad conceptual level, everything is true.

[in The Oscars 2015] When I was 16 years old I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong, and now I'm standing here, I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she's weird or she's different or she doesn't fit in anywhere. Yes you do. I promise you do. Stay weird. Stay different, and then when it's your turn, and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message along.