Top 100 Viggo Quotes
#1. I did the David Cronenberg film, A History of Violence, with Viggo Mortensen and I played a real sociopath. For the next seven years, I played the psycho-of-the-week.
Greg Bryk
#2. Directed By: Peter Jackson Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen
Jamerson INC
#3. You know, 'Viggo' is a pretty dorky name in Denmark. It's like 'Oswald' or something. It's a very old Scandinavian name, at least 1,000 years old.
Viggo Mortensen
#4. He [Viggo Mortensen] was standing behind the camera throwing the apples ... And I've never seen him so happy.
Billy Boyd
#5. But this wasn't a fairytale.
Viggo's and my story was everything but.
Bella Forrest
#6. For example I don't work with William Hurt the same way that I will work with Viggo. They're different guys and they work in different ways. So a good sensitive director has his general style and technique and personality that he uses but you don't impose that on the actors.
David Cronenberg
#7. Let's put it this way, when I was casting, I cast Viggo first and then found someone who could play his wife, rather than the other way around. So for me he's still the lead character.
David Cronenberg
#8. Viggo Mortensen had the biggest impact on me in terms of approach, dedication, intention, and artistic outlook, and I'm nowhere close to how good he is as an artist, and I wouldn't even put myself in the same category as an actor.
Orlando Bloom
#9. I have a multicultural background, so I tend to have an open mind about things, and I find other cultures interesting.
Viggo Mortensen
#10. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#11. Joseph Campbell said the privilege of a lifetime is being yourself. That's his feeling. And I guess it's mine too.
Viggo Mortensen
#12. We often live in the past a lot more than we probably realize.
Viggo Mortensen
#13. 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
#14. As a kid I read Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and a few others. As an adult have admired Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and notebooks.
Viggo Mortensen
#15. 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
#16. 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
#17. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#18. 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
#19. The Holocaust movie is almost a genre in itself these days.
Viggo Mortensen
#20. For 'Hidalgo,' I just spent as much time around horses as I could, which made sense.
Viggo Mortensen
#21. Some people who like dogs don't like cats, but I'm not like that.
Viggo Mortensen
#22. I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It's about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated.
Viggo Mortensen
#23. In terms of the movie business, being in a 'Lord of the Rings' has given me more interesting options as work.
Viggo Mortensen
#24. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#25. 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
#26. With few exceptions, one ought always do what one is afraid of.
Viggo Mortensen
#27. 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
#28. I think every family is dysfunctional, and some manage to control it better than others.
Viggo Mortensen
#30. Kids accept where they are because they don't know the past. They know what they have; they know where they are.
Viggo Mortensen
#31. Awards for arts, where you make comparisons, don't make much sense.
Viggo Mortensen
#32. On a practical level, poetry isn't something anybody has really made a great living at. I might sell some books and, once in a while, someone might pay to hear me read.
Viggo Mortensen
#33. 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
#34. You can't really go back to where you came from. I don't think any of us can.
Viggo Mortensen
#35. 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
#36. This basic thing I always do: 'What happened between the character's birth, and page one of the script?' Anything that's not in the story, I'll fill in the blanks.
Viggo Mortensen
#37. One of the most effective tools that the Cheney-Bush junta has used to marginalize dissenting or even mildly inquisitive American citizens has been the accusation of being unpatriotic.
Viggo Mortensen
#38. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#39. 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
#40. We all have secrets, some secrets bigger than others, is a normal human thing.
Viggo Mortensen
#41. 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
#42. There's no sense in doing something, especially if it's a hard job, if you can't have a little fun.
Viggo Mortensen
#43. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#44. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#45. 'The Road' is about that fear that all parents can have. What's going to happen to your child if you're not around? It takes those concerns to an extreme. In the film, without me the boy has no food, no shelter, no resources at all.
Viggo Mortensen
#46. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#47. 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
#48. It's always interesting to play a character that obviously has a secret.
Viggo Mortensen
#49. In a lot of ways, I envy someone like Omar Sharif who lived in a hotel for decades.
Viggo Mortensen
#50. My goal is just to make movies, whether they're big or small, that I'd like to see 10 years from now.
Viggo Mortensen
#51. 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.'
Viggo Mortensen
#52. I like stories that leave you wanting more, leave you wondering, but don't tell you everything.
Viggo Mortensen
#53. 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
#54. I think if you don't say something it's lying by omission. I personally think it's immoral.
Viggo Mortensen
#55. 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?
Viggo Mortensen
#56. 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
#57. 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
#58. Pinochet and Barack Obama both have the same primary goal, and that's to be president and stay president as long as allowed.
Viggo Mortensen
#59. I don't like the 'must', the 'always', and the 'never' words. I don't like 'no' either.
Viggo Mortensen
#60. 'The Road' was a movie that has a good reputation, even though it wasn't released very well, but that's a movie I'm very proud of.
Viggo Mortensen
#61. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#62. Jung viewed Freud as a mentor, but he never wanted to be anybody's disciple.
Viggo Mortensen
#63. I'm not afraid of death, but I resent it. I think it's unfair and irritating. Every time I see something beautiful, I not only want to return to it, but it makes me want to see other beautiful things. I know I'm not going to get to all the places I want to go.
Viggo Mortensen
#64. I pursue the things I do because I'm interested in them.
Viggo Mortensen
#65. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#66. I try to avoid conflict. I don't want people to be unhappy.
Viggo Mortensen
#67. You have a moral obligation to finish the job you said you would do.
Viggo Mortensen
#68. I don't think you get to be pope without making some enemies, like you do when you're president.
Viggo Mortensen
#69. People are becoming more intimately acquainted with people who are different than them - it's not so unusual anymore.
Viggo Mortensen
#70. 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
#71. You can't really divorce yourself and your life from the world you live in.
Viggo Mortensen
#72. 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
#73. 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
#74. 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.'
Viggo Mortensen
#75. I like movies that leave you with something to think about, to discuss, to debate, you know?
Viggo Mortensen
#76. I'm an optimist; I always hope that each new script is going to be a great story.
Viggo Mortensen
#78. You should always do the things in life that are both interesting and make you afraid.
Viggo Mortensen
#79. 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
#80. Nobody really knows anybody completely, even if they've been married to 'em for 53 years, you know?
Viggo Mortensen
#81. Sometimes you look at a movie and you can see that the actor or actress said, 'I'm taking this onboard because I'm making a ton of money, and not because it's going to be something special.'
Viggo Mortensen
#82. 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
#83. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#84. When you're under stress as a human being, you behave oddly and your relationships with people become strained.
Viggo Mortensen
#85. I take my work seriously, but it's not the only thing that exists in the world.
Viggo Mortensen
#86. 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
#87. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#88. I try to research or make up for myself what happened in any character's life. From when he was born until the first page of the script. I fill in the blanks.
Viggo Mortensen
#89. 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
#90. 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
#91. 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
#92. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#93. Kids are shy and they often don't want to make eye contact or say "thank you."
Viggo Mortensen
#94. 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
#95. 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
#96. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#97. 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
#98. 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
#99. 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.
Viggo Mortensen
#100. Saying you are a patriot does not make you one; wearing a flag pin does not in itself mean anything at all.
Viggo Mortensen
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
