Quotes from Viggo Mortensen

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.'

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.

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.

Like most people I can be lazy, so it's nice to have a goal or deadline or reason to work out. I feel better when I get to exercise, or when I'm outdoors. I like to hike, swim and run, and I love to play soccer.

You don't have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.

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.

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

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.

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

We all experience many freakish and unexpected events - you have to be open to suffering a little. The philosopher Schopenhauer talked about how out of the randomness, there is an apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you are an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone.

Am i a photograph you gaze at in moments of weakness? You ordered me off my knees into your arms Wasn't to beg that I knelt; only to see you once from below.

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 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.

Jung viewed Freud as a mentor, but he never wanted to be anybody's disciple.

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 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

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

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.

Nobody really knows anybody completely, even if they've been married to 'em for 53 years, you know?

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

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.

Any ordeal that you can survive as a human being is an improvement in your character, and usually an improvement in your life.

My goal is just to make movies, whether they're big or small, that I'd like to see 10 years from now.

Pinochet and Barack Obama both have the same primary goal, and that's to be president and stay president as long as allowed.