“I'm not very pious about anything, fortunately, but I'm skewering myself first. I'm skewering things that I care about and things that are important to me and then just my own foibles.” FirstsImportantCareMy OwnI CarePiousFoibles Author:Paul Beatty
“Every once in a while, someone would call me a foreigner or a Yankee, or whatever. In the United States, someone might say something, like how kids do, to point out that you're different. That would come as a surprise to me. As you get old, you either get defensive about it or you accept it and you reach out, because you realize the world's full of people like that.” PeopleWorldDifferentStatesMightKidsRealizingUnitedAcceptingUnited StatesSurpriseCall MeReach OutYankeesForeignersOld You Author:Viggo Mortensen
“There's this line between propriety and how we really speak and how we really think. And I'm just trying to have fun with that stuff.” ThinkingTryingSpeakFunStuffLinesHaving FunPropriety Author:Paul Beatty
“I don't try to be satirical. I just try to get what's in my head on the page. And that part is hard for me to do. It takes a long, long time to make it poetic, somewhat essayistic.” TryingLongHardPagesLong TimePoeticSatirical Author:Paul Beatty
“I think everybody focuses on race, but it's about a ton of things, and I just see these things as all interrelated and all interwoven in a weird way.” ThinkingWayRace Author:Paul Beatty
“I can't say that I love writing, but I do love the satisfaction that it gives me.” GivingWritingI CanGive MeSatisfaction Author:Paul Beatty
“I think it's my job to like any character I play - to understand and appreciate a character, to look at the world as much as possible from their point of view. I don't look at it just technically: learn the lines, figure out what gestures I want to bring and play, and that's it. I like to learn as much as I can about the person, and see what happens.” ThinkingWorldWantLooksPersonsI CanPlayCharacterHappensJobsLinesViewsFiguresAppreciatePoint Of ViewGestures Author:Viggo Mortensen
“I played Lucifer once, which is sort of a difficult character to research. I thought to myself, "We all have the potential to be selfish, to be cruel - at least to think evil thoughts, even if we don't ever act out on them. Even if we don't ever think we behave badly, we probably do more than we realize."” IfsThinkingCharacterEvilDifficultRealizingResearchSelfishBehaveLuciferBeing SelfishEvil Thoughts Author:Viggo Mortensen
“The only thing that I always do - is once I've taken on a job, even just to do one scene in a movie, I ask myself, "What's happened the moment the kid was born, until page one of the script?" To answer that simple question, I have an infinite amount of work to do. And I enjoy that part as much as I enjoy any part of making movies.” MomentsKidsJobsAsksEnjoyBornSimpleAnswersTakenHappenedAmountScenePagesInfiniteScripts Author:Viggo Mortensen
“I think you have to be flexible above all as an actor; different characters have different demands, actors that you work with are different in their approach, or how you get along or don't get along with them.” ThinkingDifferentCharacterActorsDemandApproachFlexibleDifferent Characters Author:Viggo Mortensen