Quotes from Christopher Walken

I think that sometimes when they see me in a movie they expect me to be something nasty. I mean, I play a lot of villains and you show up and they think maybe... That's why it's good to defy expectations sometimes.

And I think that when I play these villains, maybe what is different is that the audience sees me play these and they know that that's Chris and he's having fun and he knows that and he knows that and you know that and everybody knows that.

I play disturbed people a lot, but always with a bit of distance or tongue-in-cheek. Most of the villains I play are essentially harmless.

People think that my favorite roles to do are villains, but I find comedy to be the most challenging and rewarding.

I certainly have never been an actor who can play the Everyman guy - or, I don't tend to get those parts. I've tended to play eccentrics. I've played a lot of villains, of course.

Because if I don't know my lines, I really don't know what I'm doing.

I have a friend of mine who does me on his answering machine, and when I call him, I answer. It's pretty strange.

Emotional power is maybe the most valuable thing that an actor can have.

My father was a lesson. He had his own bakery, and it was closed one day a week, but he would go anyway. He did it because he really loved his bakery. It wasn't a job.

Well, I don't play heroes obviously. I never played the guy who gets the girl. It might be interesting to do a part where I was a father in a functional family.

There's something dangerous about what's funny. Jarring and disconcerting. There is a connection between funny and scary.

We have no way of knowing what lays ahead for us in the future. All we can do is use the information at hand to make the best decision possible.