The Cast:
“What Andrew does astonishingly in this series is the suggestion of bone-deep weariness with existence. There’s a sort of black— those black eyes— which you can’t quite fathom. It’s really quite chilling. It’s almost like there’s something else inside him looking out.” - Mark Gatiss, A Study In Pink Commentary
"I think that he is a very, very lonely character. I think what distinguishes him from Sherlock is that he doesn't have any friends. I see him as a very solitary character. One of the beautiful things about Sherlock is the friendship between John and Sherlock. So he is sociopathic in the sense that he doesn't have anybody to relate to, and I think that is what we all want. We all want to love somebody and be loved, and I don't think that he has that in his life. I hope that there's a sort of aura of sadness about the character. When people have responded to the character in the way they have, they in a way sort of like him because if you see a little glimmer of humanity in him that makes him a character we can feel compassion for. Otherwise we just absolutely hate him, and I think that what's nice about the way the character is written is that we like him as well as hate him. (laughs)" - Andrew Scott, Sherlocked Con
"Moriarty was the nightmare of his time. The idea that crime could be this centrally organized thing was the nightmare. What is our nightmare? Our nightmare is, frankly, the suicide bomber - the enemy that doesn’t prioritize their own survival.” - Steven Moffat, PBS Masterpiece Mystery “The Reichenbach Fall”
“Anything to distract him from the dreary monotony of existence.” - Mark Gatiss, PBS Masterpiece Mystery “The Making of Moriarty”
"He has this amazing ability to conjure up this sort of blank-eyed desolation of a man too clever, too clever to exist almost.” - Steven Moffat, The Guardian
"I wanted to show little glimpses of Moriarty’s vulnerability. You can’t go down that road too much because that’s not what one’s job is when playing the main antagonist, but you got to see that towards the very end, when we realize he’s going to kill himself. He’s a very desolate, very lonely, very unhappy person.” - Andrew Scott, “The Adventure of the Playful Villain”
“If you’re that terrifyingly intelligent, then what’s left for you? Andrew infuses him with a terrific sense of ennui. That the world is too small, too trivial, too boring for him.“ - Mark Gatiss, PBS Masterpiece Mystery "The Making of Moriarty”
The Show:
“Stayin' alive! It’s so boring, isn’t it? It’s just ...staying. All my life I’ve been searching for distractions.“ - Jim Moriarty, The Reichenbach Fall
"But the one thing I didn't anticipate was just how far Moriarty was prepared to go. I suppose that was obvious, given our first meeting at the swimming pool – his death wish.” - Sherlock Holmes, The Empty Hearse
"You're gonna love being dead, Sherlock. No one ever bothers you." - Jim Moriarty, His Last Vow
"Dead is the new sexy." - Jim Moriarty, The Abominable Bride
"Shall we go over together? It has to be together, doesn't it? At the end it's always just you and me." - Jim Moriarty, The Abominable Bride
"Sweet Jim, never very interested in being alive, especially if he could make more trouble being dead." - Eurus Holmes, "The Final Problem"
Fandom: I can't believe Jim Moriarty isn't alive and that Eurus brainwashed him in to killing himself, ugh.











