Quotes from Udo Kier

For me to do interviews is painful. People don't know that. To do an interview is going back in time. And to go back in time, maybe it wasn't all the time that good.

The first day of shooting came, and of course I was nervous. I would lie if I said I wasn't impressed. I mean, Lars von Trier hiring me to be the king in 'Medea'... Lars said, 'Stop! Stop!' And I was so nervous, I turned around and said, 'What is it?' He said, '... Just be a tired king.'

I have no time for real horses, so I have a plastic horse. Large size. Called Max Von Sydow. For photographs it looks real. If I do a photo shoot and it stands in the background, you think it's a horse. A horse is a horse.

Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog: They all write, which is much better because it's their baby, and they know what they want.

I mean, if you are director like Lars Von Trier who is able to get actors on a table like Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Nicole Kidman, Chloe Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgard, Udo Kier, all in the self-service situation in the same room, the same trailer, no money, then you must have something that everybody accepts.

I'm an aesthetic person who loves beauty.

I'm scared of high buildings.

Warhol took outcasts and made them into stars. There will never be another artist like him.

In Hollywood, they make movies like they make washing machines. It's a business. In Europe, the films are considered art. No producer would ever tell a director where to cut a film or how to re-write the script. I love Hollywood, but all of the time I have to go back to Europe.

I have few friends. I can count them on one hand. I go by myself to the cleaners and the supermarket and I live alone with my dogs.

I collect chairs and lights, which obviously means I want to sit in the light - not surprising for an actor I suppose.

My great joy these days is giving palm trees water. Simple as that.

I'm coming from an artistic background, from Europe, making films with Lars Van Trier like 'Breaking the Waves,' 'Dancer in the Dark,' all his films, 'The Kingdom.' But I like both, I like the totally artificial, commercial films where the actor has five or six bodyguards, I like that.

I think it's important for a filmmaker to know his actors, because you have to work so closely together and you have to like them or you'll have a horrible time.

I like special directors, and I've collected a few.

I don't mind playing Nazis, but I'll only play them in comedies. I wouldn't play a serious Nazi.

I like Palm Springs because of the sunshine. It's a little city surrounded by mountains.

When I'm depressed and the weather is bad I look up my page on IMDb and I have my coffee and feel better. There are even films on there I don't know about!

I've done more than 65 films. I don't count them anymore. The first 10 you count and then you stop.

When you don't have a family, you create one.

I like Prague, it's strange. All the houses you see look like Disney sets, with their bright colours.

There are certain people who I worked with, Pamela Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, they are figures. And they know this. They don't pretend to be good actors. They were made by the industry into figures.

Normally, I like my privacy in the high desert.

I've been in over a hundred films so I know what producers are like.