Viggo Mortensen famous quotes

There's no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there's no excuse for boredom, ever.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Crazy #Failure #Blessing

Having a mixed background and feeling a little bit like a fish out of water in most places can be a benefit.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Water #Feelings #Littles

I have never been in a natural place and felt that it was a waste of time. I never have. And it's a relief. If I'm walking around a desert or whatever, every second is worthwhile.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Hair #Desert #Waste

I was born in New York but as a baby moved to Venezuela and Argentina. I've also lived in Denmark, where my father's from. I've traveled a lot, and having that sort of background probably increased the chance that I was going to remain curious as an adult about people who are different.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Baby #New York #Father

I have friends who I get along with who I know get very uncomfortable being alone, unless they're with people, talking all the time. Whether it's on the phone, or in person, they're never by themselves. Whereas I could be alone for months.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Being Alone #Phones #Talking

It doesn't matter how bad things are, something good could happen always. And it doesn't matter how many excuses you have for behaving in an unkind manner towards others. There's never any excuse for not being kind and it's always better to be kind even if it seems pointless and that in fact is the highest wisdom - being kind. It sounds like a very noble, ethereal, simplistic idea but it's true.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Ideas #Matter #Be Kind

To be an artist, you don't have to compose music or paint or be in the movies or write books. It's just a way of living. It has to do with paying attention, remembering, filtering what you see and answering back, participating in life.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Book #Writing #Artist

I think you have to be flexible above all as an actor; different characters have different demands, actors that you work with are different in their approach, or how you get along or don't get along with them.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Character #Thinking #Demand

Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is. People lose their capacity to walk, run, travel, think, and experience life. I realise how important it is to use the time I have.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Running #Life Is Short #Thinking

The only thing that I always do - is once I've taken on a job, even just to do one scene in a movie, I ask myself, "What's happened the moment the kid was born, until page one of the script?" To answer that simple question, I have an infinite amount of work to do. And I enjoy that part as much as I enjoy any part of making movies.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Jobs #Taken #Kids

Photography, painting or poetry - those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things; they are my way of communicating.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Photography #Way #Painting

I played Lucifer once, which is sort of a difficult character to research. I thought to myself, "We all have the potential to be selfish, to be cruel - at least to think evil thoughts, even if we don't ever act out on them. Even if we don't ever think we behave badly, we probably do more than we realize."
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Selfish #Character #Thinking

I think every family is dysfunctional, and some manage to control it better than others.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Manage

I think it's my job to like any character I play - to understand and appreciate a character, to look at the world as much as possible from their point of view. I don't look at it just technically: learn the lines, figure out what gestures I want to bring and play, and that's it. I like to learn as much as I can about the person, and see what happens.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Jobs #Character #Thinking

I've never been conscious of having any real career plan, and I do not have a wish-list of actors, directors, screenwriters, or cameramen I'm hoping to work with. Life, I feel, has a way of leading us to the right situations and people, or at least to interesting ones.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Real #Careers #Interesting

Every once in a while, someone would call me a foreigner or a Yankee, or whatever. In the United States, someone might say something, like how kids do, to point out that you're different. That would come as a surprise to me. As you get old, you either get defensive about it or you accept it and you reach out, because you realize the world's full of people like that.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Kids #Yankees #People

If there's one thing I've learned from traveling, it's that it is definitely more important how you are than where you are. You can say, 'Oh, I hate X city, I hate that country, or I prefer this city,' but it's a little bit up to you to find some kind of happiness.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Country #Hate #Cities

Because of the internet, satellite TV, and the digital world, you can stay in touch, you can learn about other people from a young age.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#People #Age #World

Each time I make a movie, it's like a paid scholarship to a different university course.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Different #Scholarship #University

When I was 11, I moved to the United States with my two brothers and my mom. We moved to northern New York, up near the Canadian border, from Argentina, and there was nobody there that spoke Spanish, and because there was no internet at the time, not even cable TV yet, I lost the connection with my childhood friends and the culture I had been brought up with for my first decade completely.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Mom #Brother #New York

Be kind. It's worthwhile to make an effort to learn about other people and figure out what you might have in common with them.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#People #Effort #Might

People are becoming more intimately acquainted with people who are different than them - it's not so unusual anymore.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#People #Becoming #Different

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren't enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Horse #Stress #Thinking

I'm not afraid of death, but I resent it. I think it's unfair and irritating.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Unfair #Irritating

You don't have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Art #People #Artistic

Joseph Campbell said the privilege of a lifetime is being yourself. That's his feeling. And I guess it's mine too.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Being Yourself #Feelings #Privilege

As you get older, you get stuck in your ways; just as you become stiffer physically, you also become stiffer mentally and more narrow-minded unless you make a conscious effort to keep yourself flexible.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Effort #Way #Conscious

We all have secrets, some secrets bigger than others, is a normal human thing.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Secret #Normal #Bigger

If you tell the story emotionally in a truthful way, then you start naturally looking at the landscape and thinking "Wow, we have to watch out."
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Stories #Landscape

I've been naked physically in movies - but it's a whole other thing to be naked emotionally in a way that's not just a distraction or a character.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Character #Way #Naked

Once you learn the idea of what a good guy is, you want your dad to be a good guy, and when your dad lets you down and doesn't act like a good guy, it's disappointing and can make you angry as you see it happen, which is beautiful and very believable.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Beautiful #Dad #Ideas

Kids are shy and they often don't want to make eye contact or say "thank you."
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Kids #Eye #Want

I think the older you get the harder it is to [lose] probably. Your metabolism slows down, whatever, but I'm a pretty active person.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Slow Down #Metabolism

We often live in the past a lot more than we probably realize.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Past #Realizing

I've been lucky to learn by playing all kinds of roles and watching all kinds of really good cinematographers, actors, and directors for many years before people were even aware of me in terms of audience.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Years #People #Lucky

I think maybe because I do other things and they mean as much to me as movie acting, it takes the onus off me. It's not the end of the world if I can't get a film job, or if a movie doesn't turn out well - even though I don't like it when that happens.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Jobs #Mean #Thinking

If in my twenties I'd gotten one of the two-dozen roles that I did screen tests for and almost got, I think I would have become bored with the awards circuit, the whole hype machine.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Two #Hype

I think that every person has many, many people inside of them. We change our personality depending on who we are talking to or what situation we are in.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Talking #People

I was raised in Argentina until I was 11 and now I go back there a lot, at least twice a year. It's a country where I feel very comfortable and it represents an important period in my life.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Country #Years #Important

I was raised speaking English and Spanish. And I also speak Danish. And I can get by in French and Italian. I've acted in Spanish and English, but when something has to do with emotions, sometimes I feel I can get to the heart of the matter better in Spanish.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Heart #Italian #Matter

I would literally climb out of the cradle while my parents slept, go and crawl off. I did this a couple of times apparently. I'd cross the road and into someone's house, wake them up banging pots and pans in the kitchen.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Couple #House #Parent

I'm very comfortable in Argentina. I was raised there as a baby and stayed there until I was 11 years old, so the first decade of my life or my formative years were spent in Argentina. I stayed in tune with the food, music and language.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Baby #Years #Firsts

Ignorance breeds antipathy. Until I got to know how computers worked, I didn't want anything to do with them. I said, 'Well, why do I need them? I write letters.' Which I still do.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Ignorance #Writing #Letters

I'm certainly curious about people. As a kid, I moved around a lot. I was raised in a lot of different places, and thanks to working in the movies, I've gotten to keep traveling. I've always been interested in other cultures and languages.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Kids #Other Cultures #People

I've never played a Dane in a movie. I've had offers to be in Danish movies, including for some good directors, but I either had a job at the time or, when I was available, the movie just didn't happen. Hopefully someday I'll do one.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Jobs #Directors #Someday

I suppose a good director is like a teacher. I think that someone like David Cronenberg was very much like a teacher, because there's an openness, but a certain set of rules of behavior, and a certain conduct expected. But there's an atmosphere that's relaxed and conducive to exploration, and that is created by someone like Cronenberg.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Teacher #Thinking #Atmosphere

I really enjoyed working with New Zealanders as crew members, as teammates. They're great, and it's a beautiful country. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and I've traveled quite a bit.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Beautiful #Country #Teammate

At the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century in Austria, there was a lot of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism in Austria was much more pervasive than in Germany. And Austrians took to Nazi ideas and anti-Semitism much more readily than Germans did, really.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Ideas #Austria #Half

Being an actor, imitating to the point of inhabiting the lives of others, may simply be a way of continuing to do what I learned to do as a boy - to travel, mentally and physically.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Boys #May #Way

Every year I hear people complain that the quality of screenplays and movies is declining. In my opinion, the vast majority of scripts written - as well as most movies that are released - are not very original, well-written, or interesting. It has always been that way, and I think it always will be.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Years #Interesting

Further devastation of the air, land and sea is obviously a very real possibility, unless the attitudes of politicians and all who irresponsibly exploit our natural resources change significantly in the very near future and all collaborate and sacrifice for the good of the planet.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Attitude #Real #Sacrifice

I don't have a BlackBerry or whatever you call it. And there is something to be said for being isolated and out of phone range, because you can fall into a habit to such a degree that you don't even realise that you've lost something: silence.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Fall #Phones #Silence

Freud was the son of a Jewish merchant who had to move his whole family to Vienna because he couldn't get work. He, as a boy, had to watch his father be mocked and abused on the street for being Jewish... You develop a thick skin and you develop a certain kind of wit to defend yourself.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Father #Moving #Son

I grew up with horses when I was a kid in Argentina. I like them. I respect them. I'm careful around them. You never know what they're going to do. They're endlessly interesting. I've had some good acting partners that were horses over the years.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Horse #Kids #Years

I hate divers, like Cristiano Ronaldo, who might be the greatest athlete in the sport, but he's a big baby. If things are going well he's great, but when things are going badly it's the ref's fault, it's his teammates' fault.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Sports #Baby #Hate

I have a publishing company of books by me and books of others. It drew people to poetry readings and photo exhibitions and painting exhibitions that I've been doing for years before that.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Book #Reading #Years

I know I said I wanted to live forever and I would never be bored, but the reality is, it's probably kind of sad to live forever if you're the only one sticking around.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Reality #Bored #Forever

I know people who prepare their roles in such a way that they technically look ahead and memorize their gestures, and then they stick to it. Those that are technically proficient enough can make it seem natural, but they do that and don't really take in what other people are doing.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#People #Looks #Gestures

I like the detail work of telling a story in small pieces, as is done in movie-making, and also the long leap of faith needed to see a theatre performance through each night. Both require focus and self-discipline.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Night #Self #Long

I realise how important it is to use the time I have. I respect people who want to do that by watching television. I happen to want to read books. But I know I can't read all the books or watch all the movies in one lifetime.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Book #People #Important

Anyone can identify with those moments in life where circumstances or people inform us that we've strayed from the path of our better nature and intentions. We know what that's like, and we resist it - so as not to feel like we're bad people.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#People #Path #Moments

In a lot of places in the United States and certainly even more places around the world, the image of the cowboy has become, for some people, a negative one. The word 'cowboy' implies a strong, stubborn individual whose individualism depends on pulling down other people's individualism.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Strong #Cowboy #People

In a way, editing is not unlike the movies. The best books, just like the best movies, are a collaboration. They're only as good as the compromise made between the artists involved.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Book #Artist #Editing

With any character I have played, there's infinite possibilities for how they might behave, depending on who they are talking to or how they react to things.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Character #Talking #Might

Yes, I would agree that America, just like Spain was in the 17th Century, is the main empire of the world and they are the ones who, on the surface, are the most pushy: pushing their language, pushing their culture - or what there is of it - pushing by force their system on others.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#America #Spain #Culture

You know, Freud accepted his lot very stoically and very well and with a sense of humor. He aged and died gracefully, and there's a lot to be said for that.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Sense Of Humor #Accepted #Said

Can you join, ask sincerely for affection without sweaty hand of expectation, understanding and accepting if it never is given?
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Hands #Expectations #Understanding

If you daren't enter the forest, or cannot find it, then perhaps you might find one tree, or a place where a tree could be, and just stop for a quiet moment to see what happens.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Tree #Forests #Might

I think that people who get to a certain position, and then try to ferociously defend it or build on it, it's kind of a dead-end street. You see people becoming miserable that way.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #People #Trying

We all experience many freakish and unexpected events - you have to be open to suffering a little. The philosopher Schopenhauer talked about how out of the randomness, there is an apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you are an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Fate #Guy #Suffering

You have a moral obligation to finish the job you said you would do.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Jobs #Moral #Said

To find a good story, you're generally going to find it in independent or lower budget movies... I wouldn't mind doing a big budget movie if it had a great story.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Independent #Mind #Stories

You can't really divorce yourself and your life from the world you live in.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Divorce #World

In other words, I’m against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious fundamentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocrisy shown by Bush and his administration.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Cheating #Religious #Hypocrisy

I mean, any movie or story that makes you accept and be grateful for something about your life is doing something right.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Grateful #Mean #Stories

A lot of people can forget about you in Los Angeles.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#People #Forget #Los Angeles

When we shot 'The Lord of the Rings,' we had special permission to film in wild areas of New Zealand that could be accessed only by helicopter. They would drop us off and we would work all day, and they'd pick us up and take us out again.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Special #Film #Lord

When I make a movie, I don't break it down and analyze it. I could but it would get in the way of doing a job - on instinct based on all the research we did going in. you want to trust yourself and your director and your acting partners in the circumstances you're shooting. I don't like to have any kind of overview.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Jobs #Acting #Research

In principle, I think the idea of rewarding a good effort is interesting, but movies are generally different from each other as are performances and the conditions on how the performances are given and how they're edited and so forth.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Thinking #Ideas #Interesting

It's amazing to me that Glenn Beck can be on the cover of 'Time,' and there can be a whole article about him basically saying, 'Well, you know, he's controversial.' It's like, 'No, he's a dangerous idiot who needs the help of a good psychiatrist!'
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Needs #Helping #Idiot

Like most people - unless they're very practised at it or have no warm blood at all in their veins - I feel a little apprehensive about the red carpet. It's always a bit bewildering when people are taking pictures and asking questions before the ceremony.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Blood #Asking Questions #People

Looking at acting, in the movies or the theater, and the way I like to look at it, it's just an extension of childhood play... Kids play and imagine in a very intense fashion and they don't need any director telling them, 'You really have to believe in it.' They believe in it completely.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Fashion #Believe #Kids

More often than not, the experience of shooting the movie has been disappointing and the end product has been a mere shadow of what I hoped it would be. But immersing myself in the story - that's what I like best of all.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Shadow #Would Be #Stories

One of the main ways that leadership stays in power is by, in various ways, convincing people that they should just let those who are in government govern: 'Trust us. Trust me. Just let us take care of things. Stay out of it.' Your opinions don't really matter. You are isolated. You are insignificant.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Government #People #Care

People will like to say that 'Eastern Promises' is brutal, but the only reason they say that is because the scenes stick with them. They are realistic. They are in-your-face and you see the consequences. It's not a bunch of quick editing cuts.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Cutting #Editing #People

Some actors learn the habit of promoting themselves as a brand - by dressing in a certain way, by going out with a certain person - it gives them what they obviously want, which is to keep a level of fame. I'm not putting it down.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Giving #Actors #Levels

Sometimes a scene works and acting is the easiest thing in the world and you don't have to do much of anything - just enjoy yourself and listen to the other actor. When it doesn't work, then every actor has different ways of dealing with the impasse. Sometimes you use memories from the past. Whatever. It depends from job to job.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Jobs #Memories #Past

Toronto Film Festival is one of those festivals where there are 400 movies, and unless you have a distributor who is super confident and puts a lot of money into it, sometimes movies can go unwatched or unnoticed.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Festivals #Toronto #Film

Travel is one of the best anti-war weapons that there are. I've been to Iran, and if you're there you see little kids, cops, old people, cemeteries. Once you see that, you can't say, 'Oh, Iran, let's bomb them.'
-- Viggo Mortensen

#War #Kids #Iran

Walking down the street in any town or city in the world and having people look at you and start talking to you, convinced that they know you as well or better than they do members of their own family, that's just an odd phenomenon. But I mean, I wouldn't say it was a bad thing. It's an interesting thing.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Mean #Talking #Cities

When I heard Puerto Ricans in New York City, it sounded very strange. And the first time I heard someone from Spain, I thought they had a speech impediment!
-- Viggo Mortensen

#New York #Cities #Speech

You should always do the things in life that are both interesting and make you afraid.
-- Viggo Mortensen

#Interesting #Should