Viggo Mortensen Quotations | Page 3

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

It is important to keep protesting, to keep forcing a conversation in the public arena. In any case, when you know what the right thing to do is, or that something must be said, it can be immoral and dangerous not to act.

In 2016 we are faced with a particularly bizarre and unappetizing choice as regards the two main political parties' presidential candidates, in my opinion.

That is to say, Hillary Clinton is not, in my mind, a satisfying or calming alternative to Donald Trump.

I trust Hillary Clinton about as far as I could throw Donald Trump.

I like naturally occurring film grain, and what happens to film when it's under- and over-exposed.

As regards Hillary C;inton's foreign policy actions and the powerful vested interests she seems gleefully beholden to, including all the biggest players in the military-industrial complex, I feel that she would be no better an actor on the world stage than Trump and whatever coalition of managers he might cobble together.

If you're not optimistic on some level, then you've given up.

People like to pigeonhole you. It's easier.

It's just like with people. You're going to get along better working with them - human or equine - if you ask politely rather than demand that they do things.

It's easy to get depressed and think, "Well, what's the point?" But it's the same as, "Well, we're all going to die, so what's the point in brushing my teeth or even saying hello to anyone or obeying traffic lights." You can do that, but that's certainly not going to take you anywhere.

Here's where we are, this is what's happening. So do something, or get out of the kitchen.

As Aragorn said at Helm's Deep, "There is always hope."

Bernie Sanders has inspired millions of people in this country.

The Black Lives Matter movement, the various Occupy movements in Spain and the rest of Europe, in this country, and elsewhere serve as an example of what can be done, and how strong the voices for positive change and truly democratic progress can be.

The efforts of Black Lives Matter to bring attention to the all-too-frequent instances of unjustified violence being used by policemen may not be paying off as quickly as some might hope.

I want to see what the Green Party looks like. I think if people don't start voting what they feel, if that's something other than the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, then nothing's going to change. You need more political parties that actually have a chance.

I have to say that I think Bernie Sanders is the first politician since Dennis Kucinich that I've been truly inspired by. Where you actually are truly speaking truth to power, in a legitimate way and in an unpretentious and very straightforward way.

If I can get a day to myself, I won't answer the phone, I'll read or go for a walk. Simple, basic things. People think there's always time to do that but there isn't. Life is short.

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.

You should always do the things in life that are both interesting and make you afraid.

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.

I now realize that I was very fortunate to have grown up in many different places, surrounded by all kinds of people, all kinds of points of view.

To find a good story, you're generally going to find it in independent or lower budget movies... I wouldn't mind doing a big budget movie if it had a great story.

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.

A lot of people can forget about you in Los Angeles.

Perhaps the itinerant upbringing my brothers and I had has something to do with my continued interest in perspectives different from my own.

My job as an artist, as I see it, is to understand and in some cases to take on various ways of thinking about people and the world that are different from my own, sometimes radically different.

I met Cindy [Sheehan] near Crawford, Texas. I went out to personally thank her for waiting patiently by the road in front of George and Laura Bush's ranch for an answer from her President as to why and for what her son and others had been sacrificed in the unlawful invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Even the implication that The Lord of the Rings is a mythic story about Western, white supremacy - regardless of the political leanings of anyone who tries to make that case - is a load of self-justifying, destructive horseshit.

You have a moral obligation to finish the job you said you would do.

As [John] Tolkien himself said, the story [Lord of the Ring ] is not allegorical. He said so when people tried to make analogies to World War II and the fight against Hitler and his fascist coalition.

Joseph Campbell said the privilege of a lifetime is being yourself. That's his feeling. And I guess it's mine too.

I wrote a letter to the magazine [Time magazine] pointing out that [Richard] Corliss's comparison of Christopher Lee's Saruman to Osama Bin Laden, and the vastly outnumbered defenders of Helm's Deep united against the Orcs to the "Coalition of the Willing" fighting the good fight against Muslim hordes, displayed the simplistic, xenophobic, and arrogant worldview that makes the government of the United States feared and mistrusted around the world. The editors claimed they had no space to print my brief letter, which I felt was dishonest and cowardly.

[Captain Fantastic] it's a great story. It's one of the better scripts I've read, ever, as far as being great from beginning to end. It handles a variety of characters. You have six children who all stand on their own, they're all individuals. And it touches on a very real issue, which is the lack of cohesion and communication in America right now.

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.

I think we're on the wrong path in this country and have been for a while. People are in their camps divided by region, economic situation, race, religion, ideology. And there's a lot of just staying in your camp using technology to bolster your case without actually debating with other people, without discussing.

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.

I campaigned for [Dennis] Kucinich in 2008. I continue to be in touch with him and I really admire him. I think he's very brave and honest - unusually so for a U.S. politician.

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.