“For me a true landscape is not just a representation of a desert or a forest. It shows an inner state of mind, literally inner landscapes, and it is the human soul that is visible through the landscapes presented in my films.” MindHumansSoulStatesShowsFilmForestsDesertLandscapeVisibleState Of MindRepresentationHuman Soul Author:Werner Herzog
“Along with this rapid growth of forms of communication at our disposal - be it fax, phone, email, internet or whatever - human solitude will increase in direct proportion.” HumansFormGrowthTechnologyCommunicationInternetSolitudeDirectIncreasePhonesProportionEmailRapidsFaxRapid Growth Author:Werner Herzog
“Centuries from now our great-great-great-grandchildren will look back at us with amazement at how we could allow such a precious achievement of human culture as the telling of a story to be shattered into smithereens by commercials, the same amazement we feel today when we look at our ancestors for whom slavery, capital punishment, burning of witches, and the inquisition were acceptable everyday events.” FeelsHumansLooksStoriesTodayFilmCultureCenturyEventsAchievementHollywoodSlaveryEverydayPunishmentBurningWitchAncestorAcceptableGrandchildrenShatteredAmazementCapital PunishmentInquisitionGreat Grandchildren Author:Werner Herzog
“Chauvet Cave is rather like the awakening of the modern human soul or I would say the awakening of modern human culture. Because Neanderthal men who still rode the landscape parallel to the people who did these paintings didn't have culture. There's no evidence of culture, no symbolic depiction, no evidence of music, no evidence of sculptures, no evidence of religious beliefs.” PeopleMenHumansStillsSoulCultureBeliefReligiousModernPaintingEvidenceAwakeningLandscapeCavesSculptureParallelsHuman SoulSymbolicReligious BeliefDepictionNeanderthals Author:Werner Herzog
“This is the birth of the modern human soul. The artists are like us, not like the Neanderthals, who had no culture - and who incidentally were still roaming the landscape at the time the paintings were made. It is striking that there is a distant cultural echo that seems to reach all the way down to us, over dozens of millennia.” WayHumansMadeStillsSoulSeemsArtistCultureModernPaintingBirthMade ItLandscapeDozenEchoesHuman SoulRoamingNeanderthals Author:Werner Herzog
“[Tim White] always spoke about his work in terms of forensics, as if he was investigating a crime scene. While we were there, they found the fossilized excrement of a lion that had turned into stone, and we would immediately start to concoct stories. Was it a lion that killed the early human? Of course, the lion could've been there three weeks later, or maybe 20,000 years earlier.” IfsYearsHumansStoriesThreeCoursesFoundTermWhiteWeekCrimeSceneStonesSpokesLionsInvestigatingForensics Author:Werner Herzog
“The universe couldn't care less about us. I say this very clearly in the film [ "Into the Inferno"]: our planet is "indifferent to scurrying roaches, retarded reptiles and vapid humans alike."” HumansCareFilmUniversePlanetsIndifferentOur PlanetRetardedInfernoReptilesRoachesVapid Author:Werner Herzog
“We haven't seen a real volcanic event at least in 74,000 years - [Mount Toba] in Indonesia, in Sumatra, where the crater itself is 100 kilometers across. It was so monumental, what happened, that for a very long time the entire atmosphere of our planet was darkened. It's not the lava and the heat per se; it's the obscuring of the entire atmosphere, and it made it very difficult for the human race to survive.” YearsHumansLongMadeRealDifficultRaceHappenedEventsHavensPlanetsLong TimeMade ItAtmosphereHuman RaceHeatOur PlanetIndonesiaLavaCraters Author:Werner Herzog
“It's very enigmatic because of course, the population [of North Korea] has no contact with the world outside or it's very, very limited. They don't have any telephone connections, no radio, no TV, no movies, no newspapers - nothing from the outside world. This is very strange and there's the very strict, unifying government that forces you to be in step. You see it in the stadium where the spectators create, by flipping cards, an image of the dear leader, or of the volcano, and it's made of a 100,000 human pictures.” WorldHumansMadeGovernmentCoursesForceLeaderStepsStrangeTvsConnectionsDearPopulationRadioNewspapersContactCardsStrictTelephonesSpectatorsKoreaNorth KoreaStadiumsOutside WorldVolcanoesUnifyingEnigmatic Author:Werner Herzog
“At the end [when I speak about] magma under us everywhere, how it's monumentally indifferent to scurrying roaches, recoiled reptiles, and vapid humans alike. You see, you would never hear anything like that in a National Geographic or a PBS movie. This is clearly a transgression when it comes to being politically correct with your commentary.” HumansEndsSpeakLike YouIndifferentCommentaryPolitically CorrectTransgressionReptilesRoachesNational GeographicVapidPbsMagma Author:Werner Herzog
“I run my own film school, the Rogue Film School, and I do it over three and a half days, eight hours non-stop everyday; alone, single-handedly. But the difference is in the Rogue Film School I do have real human beings in front of me from all over the world, and of course there's this course as well, they can ask, talk about their problems and obstacles, finances, anything, you just name it. Whereas in the Masterclass, you are speaking to cameras.” WorldHumansWellsRealProblemRunningSchoolFilmThreeCoursesAsksNamesHoursDifferencesMy OwnHuman BeingsHalfFrontsCamerasEverydayObstaclesEightFinanceRoguesFilm SchoolReal HumanNon StopHalf Days Author:Werner Herzog
“[Internet] is amazing as much as human beings can be amazing, and it's debased and depraved and vile as human beings can be.” HumansHuman BeingsInternetDepraved Author:Werner Herzog
“The internet doesn't have any qualities, technical qualities. It's just fast, reaching out everywhere and so, it can process that and that volume of data flows and so, but it doesn't have any qualities like "good" or "bad" or "ethical" or "non-ethical". It's humans, it's us, not the internet.” HumansProcessQualityInternetFlowDataReachingEthicalReach OutVolume Author:Werner Herzog
“at the press conference for the film he impressed everyone with his complete sincerity and innocence. he said he had come to see the sea for the first time and marveled at how clean it was. someone told him that, in fact, it wasn't. 'when the world is emptied of human beings' he said, 'it will become so again” WorldFirstsHumansSaidFactsFilmHuman BeingsSeaFirst TimePressesCleanInnocenceSincerityImpressedConferencesPress Conferences Author:Werner Herzog
“Our presence on this planet does not seem to be sustainable. Our technical civilization makes up particularly vulnerable. There is talk all over the scientific community about climate change. Many of them [scientists] agree, the end of human life on earth is assured.” HumansDoeEndsSeemsEarthCommunityPlanetsScientistAgreeClimateEnvironmentalClimate ChangeVulnerableHuman LifeTechnologicalAssuredCivilisation Author:Werner Herzog
“I am so used to plunging into the unknown that any other surroundings and form of existence strike me as exotic and unsuitable for human beings.” HumansFormUsedHuman BeingsExistenceStrikesSurroundingsExotic Author:Werner Herzog
“I think it is a quest of literature throughout the ages to describe the human condition.” ThinkingHumansAgeLiteratureConditionsHuman ConditionQuests Author:Werner Herzog
