Top 88 Viggo Mortensen Quotes

I’m not that involved in personal grooming. But I try not to be offensive to people.

I’m optimistic about people and about the planet and about nature. I think it’s resilient, like people are.

There’s no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there’s no excuse for boredom, ever.

When I was a little boy, I rode, but I didn’t own horses.

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.

You can’t really go back to where you came from. I don’t think any of us can.

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.

A lot of times, movies that are in the top 10 lists or maybe even win Baftas or Oscars, you then watch them a year later and you go, ‘Maybe it wasn’t so great.’

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.

I’m sort of contrary and stubborn sometimes. When everybody says, ‘You have to read this book! You have to read this book!’ I’m like ‘Oh, I’ll get around to it.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

I like a twisted sense of humour. On ‘A History of Violence,’ David Cronenberg and I would be doing the grimmest scenes and laugh a lot.

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.

If you don’t find some way to discuss what’s going on inside you, it can come out in other ways that are self-destructive.

It’s hard not to get depressed when you pay attention to the world and how strangely and corrupt the people in it sometimes behave.

I like naturally occurring film grain, and what happens to film when it’s under- and over-exposed.

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.

Usually the characters I play are men of few words, who communicate in non-verbal ways.

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.

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.

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.

I have a multicultural background, so I tend to have an open mind about things, and I find other cultures interesting.

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

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.

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.

You see people on the street yelling and think they’re crazy, but maybe they’re just happy and expressing what they feel at all times.

I have no idea what ‘method actor’ means.

You do need to get lucky, no matter how talented you are.

Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is.

As far as money goes, there’s a saying in Denmark: ‘Your last suit doesn’t have any pockets.’ You can’t take it with you. You can make all the money you want, but who cares?

It’s true that I have a wide range of interests. I like to write and paint and make music and go walking on my own and garden. In fact, gardening is probably what I enjoy doing more than anything else.

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.

If you’re trying to please everyone, then you’re not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don’t think, in the long run.

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

A little recognition is not a bad thing because it means people appreciate your work. The only problem is when you can’t walk down the street or have a meal without people looking at you. I want to be the one looking at people.

You can’t really divorce yourself and your life from the world you live in.

I love rehearsing, but a lot of directors don’t, and some actors don’t.

You know, real life doesn’t just suddenly resolve itself. You have to keep working at it. Democracy, marriage, friendship. You can’t just say, ‘She’s my best friend.’ That’s not a given, it’s a process.

In a lot of ways, I envy someone like Omar Sharif who lived in a hotel for decades.

The first decade of your life is really important; it’s formative.

When there is conflict, it’s good to step away, even for five minutes, because you could say terrible things that you can’t take back, so it’s best to walk away.

In the end, the actor’s main power is the power to say, ‘No.’

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.

Most movies are lucky to have one moment, one shot that you look at and you always remember that moment and that scene.

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.

Saying you are a patriot does not make you one; wearing a flag pin does not in itself mean anything at all.

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.

For ‘Hidalgo,’ I just spent as much time around horses as I could, which made sense.

Adult characters are all the things they’ve encountered over time. But kids haven’t accumulated all the life experience, all the regrets. They tend to be more in the moment, more willing to play, to be joyful.

I’d like to, when it’s all said and done, say that I have at least a few stories that I feel proud of.

I have a roof over my head. I had a breakfast, and a lot of people in the world can’t say that. I’m not going to complain about being interviewed.

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.

Some people who like dogs don’t like cats, but I’m not like that.

In terms of the movie business, being in a ‘Lord of the Rings’ has given me more interesting options as work.

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. There are other things I enjoy doing, and I involve myself in them.