It’s very rare you get a great script just handed to you, or sent to you, by someone you don’t know. – Viggo Mortensen
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
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
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
I like stories that leave you wanting more, leave you wondering, but don’t tell you everything. – Viggo Mortensen
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
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
‘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
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
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
Each time I make a movie, it’s like a paid scholarship to a different university course. – Viggo Mortensen
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The best thing an actor can be is flexible, because all directors are different and all actors are different. – Viggo Mortensen
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. – Viggo Mortensen
There’s no sense in doing something, especially if it’s a hard job, if you can’t have a little fun. – Viggo Mortensen
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. – Viggo Mortensen
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