Looking at acting, in the movies or the theater, and the way I like to look at it, it’s just an extension of childhood play… Kids play and imagine in a very intense fashion and they don’t need any director telling them “You really have to believe in it.” They believe in it completely.

Viggo Mortensen

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

Viggo Mortensen

sad depression inspirational

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren't enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.

Viggo Mortensen

horse stress thinking

I don't have a BlackBerry or whatever you call it. And there is something to be said for being isolated and out of phone range, because you can fall into a habit to such a degree that you don't even realise that you've lost something: silence.

Viggo Mortensen

phones silence fall

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

Viggo Mortensen

things-in-life should interesting

Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is. People lose their capacity to walk, run, travel, think, and experience life. I realise how important it is to use the time I have.

Viggo Mortensen

life-is-short running thinking

I think that every person has many, many people inside of them. We change our personality depending on who we are talking to or what situation we are in.

Viggo Mortensen

talking people thinking

I have never been in a natural place and felt that it was a waste of time. I never have. And it's a relief. If I'm walking around a desert or whatever, every second is worthwhile.

Viggo Mortensen

desert waste hair

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.

Viggo Mortensen

saying-hello light thinking

To be an artist, you don't have to compose music or paint or be in the movies or write books. It's just a way of living. It has to do with paying attention, remembering, filtering what you see and answering back, participating in life.

Viggo Mortensen

artist writing book

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.

Viggo Mortensen

being-alone phones loneliness

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.

Viggo Mortensen

powerful military player

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. If you allow yourself to be somewhat curious - and if you get into the habit of doing that - it's the first step to being open minded and realizing that your points of view aren't totally opposite.

Viggo Mortensen

views opposites people

It's hard not to get depressed when you pay attention to the world and how strangely and corrupt the people in it sometimes behave.

Viggo Mortensen

attention people world

As Martin Luther King said, "Passively to participate in an unjust system is to accept that system and to participate in its evil."

Viggo Mortensen

unjust kings evil

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.

Viggo Mortensen

artistic people art

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.

Viggo Mortensen

artist jobs thinking

When I have a day off, I won't spend it at a Hollywood party. I'd rather be at home with paints and a blank canvas.

Viggo Mortensen

hollywood party home

I'm not afraid of death, but I resent it. I think it's unfair and irritating. Every time I see something beautiful, I not only want to return to it, but it makes me want to see other beautiful things. I know I'm not going to get to all the places I want to go.

Viggo Mortensen

want beautiful thinking

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

Viggo Mortensen

manage thinking

Each time I make a movie, it's like a paid scholarship to a different university course.

Viggo Mortensen

university scholarship different