Viggo Mortensen Quotes

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.

I don't speak up about something unless I feel strongly about it and until I've researched a subject extensively and have an informed decision about it.

Perceval Press a publishing house I founded in 2002 and it's still going strong. Strong for us means not so many books per year, but each one we very carefully design and print.

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.

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.

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

I like stories that leave you wanting more, leave you wondering, but don't tell you everything.

When people say that entertainers should "know your place," they might as well say the same thing about plumbers and teachers and cab drivers. We all should be able to express our views.

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?

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

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

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.

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

The Holocaust movie is almost a genre in itself these days.

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.

I'm just looking as always for something that's stimulating and I hope to find a good story that's a challenge, whether it's big or small. Or that it finds me. I don't have like a career plan. Maybe I should, but I don't.

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

There are people that grandstand and seem to be publicly politically engaged because they like the attention, more than because they're genuinely concerned about the world. But I don't think that's the majority.

I met Cindy [Sheehan] near Crawford, Texas. I went out to personally thank her for waiting patiently by the road in front of George and Laura Bush's ranch for an answer from her President as to why and for what her son and others had been sacrificed in the unlawful invasion and occupation of Iraq.

It doesn't take that many years for a kid to realise that they're going to die. It's always there in the back of their mind the rest of their lives.

I take my work seriously, but it's not the only thing that exists in the world.

I pursue the things I do because I'm interested in them.

In December of 2002, the late Richard Corliss, a respected movie critic with a long and illustrious career, wrote an embarrassing letter of support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan in the guise of a Time magazine review of Peter Jackson's The Two Towers.

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

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.

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.

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.

Any nominations a movie gets helps to raise the level of curiosity in the public, so in that sense awards and nominations are important.

What art does is it makes you feel alive and makes you feel like you're connected.

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

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.

Even the implication that The Lord of the Rings is a mythic story about Western, white supremacy - regardless of the political leanings of anyone who tries to make that case - is a load of self-justifying, destructive horseshit.

I don't think Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell fear competition from me in their arena.

The money I earn from films means I can help the people I want to help - you can do a lot of good if you want to.

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

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.

The best thing an actor can be is flexible, because all directors are different and all actors are different.

I wrote a letter to the magazine [Time magazine] pointing out that [Richard] Corliss's comparison of Christopher Lee's Saruman to Osama Bin Laden, and the vastly outnumbered defenders of Helm's Deep united against the Orcs to the "Coalition of the Willing" fighting the good fight against Muslim hordes, displayed the simplistic, xenophobic, and arrogant worldview that makes the government of the United States feared and mistrusted around the world. The editors claimed they had no space to print my brief letter, which I felt was dishonest and cowardly.

Those who have the power and should be the most responsible are often the least responsible.

America is an empire in decay. But we don't have to lash out and do damage on the way down. We can reverse some of the damage we've done. It's possible.

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

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

It's very rare you get a great script just handed to you, or sent to you, by someone you don't know.

There might be people out there who wouldn't hire me because they thought I should keep my mouth shut, but I'm not aware of that. Even if I saw evidence of that, it wouldn't really concern me.

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.

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