Viggo Mortensen Quotations

The way we present ourselves is a veneer, and beneath that, there are a lot more unpleasant things. Other directors might have missed a lot of the subtleties of this story and made a meal out of the violence.

I think if you don't say something it's lying by omission. I personally think it's immoral.

Kids are shy and they often don't want to make eye contact or say "thank you."

I take my work seriously, but it's not the only thing that exists in the world.

I pursue the things I do because I'm interested in them.

There are people that grandstand and seem to be publicly politically engaged because they like the attention, more than because they're genuinely concerned about the world. But I don't think that's the majority.

Once you learn the idea of what a good guy is, you want your dad to be a good guy, and when your dad lets you down and doesn't act like a good guy, it's disappointing and can make you angry as you see it happen, which is beautiful and very believable.

I've been naked physically in movies - but it's a whole other thing to be naked emotionally in a way that's not just a distraction or a character.

If you tell the story emotionally in a truthful way, then you start naturally looking at the landscape and thinking "Wow, we have to watch out."

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.