Viggo Mortensen Quotes

I've never had a problem with people paying attention to what you're doing and say they find that they liked it.

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.

There's no sense in doing something, especially if it's a hard job, if you can't have a little fun.

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.'

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

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

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.

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.

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!

I'm not a great fan of monarchy in general, but I have to say the Danish monarchy is closer to the people; it's not as stuffy as the English one.

I'm an optimist; I always hope that each new script is going to be a great story.

I think, on a surface level, people are surprised to see me playing such a passive role in 'Good.'

I don't like the 'must', the 'always', and the 'never' words. I don't like 'no' either.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

I like movies that leave you with something to think about, to discuss, to debate, you know?

I have no idea what 'method actor' means.

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

To be honest, I don't really care about any pope. It's not something I think about much, to be quite honest with you.

I don't think you get to be pope without making some enemies, like you do when you're president.

Awards for arts, where you make comparisons, don't make much sense.

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

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.

It's almost a standard tactic, really, to try to minimize any effort that people in the entertainment business or in any public occupation make to express themselves.

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

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

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.

Perhaps the itinerant upbringing my brothers and I had has something to do with my continued interest in perspectives different from my own.

Speaking more than one language and living in a multicultural family and environment did not seem like anything but what it was: the world I lived in.

I campaigned for [Dennis] Kucinich in 2008. I continue to be in touch with him and I really admire him. I think he's very brave and honest - unusually so for a U.S. politician.

Bernie Sanders has inspired millions of people in this country.

To strive for something better - at least there's a chance.

I think if you don't say something it's lying by omission. I personally think it's immoral.

I trust Hillary Clinton about as far as I could throw Donald Trump.

In 2016 we are faced with a particularly bizarre and unappetizing choice as regards the two main political parties' presidential candidates, in my opinion.

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."

I look at my job as looking at the world from points of view that are different from mine - sometimes radically different from mine.